Poison of Youth
by Trunchbull
Summary: In order to save one of their own, the Xiaolin Dragons must trade one of their own... to the Heylin side.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes**: I won't call this a true Chase/Kimiko fic because I don't think there'll really be any true feelings between each other. However, it focuses on a scenario where Kimiko is stuck with Chase, and stuff does happen with them eventually. But no true love.

.o

"The Vein of Zhen. The target will be coated with a purple goo that returns to the holder with the energy of its target. If not restored within a day, the target will become a lifeless statue," Raimundo read from the Ancient Scroll as the four Dragons rode on Dojo through the Amazon forest.

"It was one of Dashi's most dangerous Shen Gong Wu. He never ended up using it; felt that it had too much power behind it. It was made in the later years of his Shen Gong Wu ideas, after Wuya was defeated, so it pretty much never saw the light of day." Dojo reminisced, weaving easily along the large trunks that supported the canopy of colourful wildlife.

The Wu was easily located right in the middle of a nest—one way too large to be crafted by a normal bird. The Vein of Zhen was a short golden handle shaft with metal feathers lining the topmost portion of the stick, with four metal pieces similar in appearance to a bird's beak in the middle of all those feathers.

The Xiaolin monks had company, though. Jack Spicer was way too close to the Wu for comfort; it was in arm's reach. Dojo spiraled around three trees that supported the giant nest. Kimiko jumped off of Dojo mid-flight, running to at least try to initiate a showdown between Jack, while Clay hopped off once Dojo lands on the branches. Jack doesn't appear to notice Kimiko as he snatches the Wu up.

However, Clay was moving fast toward him, and panicked, Jack looked away and points the Wu in the general direction Clay was coming from and shouted, "Vein of Zhen!"

The four golden prongs opened, and a shiny purple liquid shot out from the mouth directly at Clay. There was no room to dodge; Clay tried to move to the side but the spray radius of the Wu was too great. From head to toe, Clay was covered. For a moment, nothing happened. As quickly as it had come out, the goo retreated back into its golden case. Clay was frozen in place, but the events happened so fast that Kimiko couldn't stop her kick from landing square on Jack's back, shooting him straight into Clay, and sending them directly over the edge of the nest.

Omi and Raimundo jumped after Clay, Omi calling upon the Third Arm Sash to loop around Clay's body and over to Raimundo, who grabbed hold of the Sash and slowed their fall by latching on to the tree. They landed easily on the ground, sinking into the mud that formed after a recent flood.

Jack Spicer, on the other hand, never reached the ground. A loud screech boomed throughout the forest, announcing the return of the freakishly large owner of the nest. It spotted Jack carrying the shiny object it had found, and resorted to plucking Jack, its thief, right out of the sky in its giant talons. Jack immediately started screaming, wriggling violently in the bird's grasp, but it didn't relent. It began carrying Jack away from the scene, and in Jack's struggle, he accidentally let go of the Shen Gong Wu, it falling to be lost in the thick of the Amazon jungle.

"Kimiko, you must find the Vein of Zhen! Raimundo and I will help Clay!" Omi shouted out to her from far below. Kimiko looked back to them helping Clay up on his feet, and then into the forest extending beyond her. She nodded and took off, moving quickly from tree to tree.

With the recent flood, the mud covering the ground could very well have swallowed the Shen Gong Wu whole, and she hoped that wasn't the case. Most likely not, as the canopy was thick enough to be able to stop something from above before it reached the ground. Even then, she kept an eye out for anything shiny on the ground.

Jacks screams were still echoing off the canopy walls (and an angry squawk) when she finally spotted the Vein of Zhen, lodged between two thick branches from different trees. She jumped onto the tree closest to her, only getting four steps forward before she realised she had company.

The new possessor of the Vein of Zhen was Chase Young.

"Chase Young! I don't know what you're doing here but that Wu belongs to us!" Kimiko started, moving quickly into a defensive position, just in case Chase tried to pull anything.

"Oh really?" that smirk on his face really brought her blood to a boil despite the fear that lingered there. "Because it appears that I hold this Shen Gong Wu, and not you."

"Give it back!" While she was in the mood for a fight, she didn't want that fight to be with _Chase Young_.

"Sorry, young monk, but I have bigger priorities than you would with this Wu." With that being said, Chase dropped off the side of the branch he'd been standing on. Kimiko gasped, running and looking over to see where he could have gone. After all, the distance from here to the ground was pretty far. However, there was no trace of Chase Young left.

Perturbed, Kimiko returned quickly to where the other Dragons had last been found, in time to see Dojo shifting into his larger form.

Clay was unable to stand properly, requiring the shoulder of Raimundo and the power of the Third Arm Sash to keep him steady on his feet in the mud. He was sluggish and stiff, looking very pale.

"Clay, dude, we gotta get you back to the temple. Maybe the Fung-meister will know what to do," Raimundo said, helping Omi heave Clay onto Dojo's back.

Omi kept the Sash active during the flight to keep Clay steady for the most part, Kimiko sitting behind him to steady him as a backup. "I'm really sorry, Clay," she grimaced, a groan being the only acknowledgement that he heard her. "If I were a little faster, I could have stopped Jack from doing whatever he did to you."

"We must move fast to find a cure," Omi noted, eyes staring down in concentration, "Or I fear Clay may be gone… forever."

.o

"In order for Clay to be restored to health, you must retrieve the Vein of Zhen."

"Why can't we just use the Reversing Mirror on him?" Omi queried.

"If the Reversing Mirror were to be used, the disease that is plaguing Clay will become airborne and infect the wielder of the Reversing Mirror if the Vein of Zhen itself is not present to receive the disease," Master Fung explained.

"So, we gotta get the Wu back?" Raimundo quipped in, looking ready to jump into action and kick a certain evil dragon's rear to get the Wu back.

"It seems like the only available option we have," Omi commented solemnly, eyes looking down, mind wandering to all of the potential outcomes that could occur from losing the Shen Gong Wu.

Upon seeing Omi's rather downbeat state, Kimiko placed a hand on Omi's shoulder as a gesture of consolation. "Don't worry Omi, we'll get that Wu back." She smiled at the end, and that seemed to lift Omi's spirits a bit.

"Clay's not going to die today. Not as long as we're able to do something about it."

.o

Dojo landed at the mouth of Chase Young's volcanic lair, shriveling as soon as his passengers jumped off, and wrapped himself around Omi's neck. Omi boldly steps up to entrance.

"Chase Young, we are here to—"

Before Omi could finish, the large sheet of rock slides down, revealing the beautiful blue and white palace within. The Dragons entered hesitantly, on guard at all times, making their way through the darkened hallway until being greeted by great light. Lions and a few tigers lined the path to the entranceway, as if they'd been expecting their arrival this entire time.

The Heylin Warrior himself stood at the edge of a flight of stairs, hands behind his back and staring intently as the Xiaolin Dragons halted at the base of said stairs.

"We order you to release the Vein of Zhen at once!" Omi finally managed to finish his sentence, pointing his finger directly at Chase.

Chase knew exactly what was at stake if the Dragons did not return with the Shen Gong Wu in their possession; this would be a great situation to manipulate in his favour.

"And what, pray tell, would I receive in return for this Wu?" he asked, the plan already formulated in his head.

"What you will… get?" Omi repeated him. Obviously he hadn't considered a deal with Chase Young, only that he'd thought they'd be getting into a physical fight to retrieve it.

"It seems only fair that I receive something in return for this Shen Gong Wu that you want." Chase produced the Vein of Zhen from behind his back, visible so that all of them could see it clearly. "It seems one of your monks is missing in action. I assume you want this to revive him. However, I will only give this Wu to you for a trade—a life for a life."

Omi scrunched up his face. "Explain yourself!"

"It's simple. I will settle for no less than one of your own. By giving you Xiaolin Dragons this Vein of Zhen, I must receive one of you Xiaolin Dragons in return, to serve as one of my cat warriors."

They were all taken aback. "No way! You are way on your rock to even suggest something like that! It is clearly a trap!" Omi exclaimed.

"Off your rocker," hummed Raimundo to the side. "But then we'll never be able to save Clay."

"But if we do, then we'd be giving in to the side of evil." One could clearly hear how much this was troubling the little boy. He did not want to risk one of their lives…but he didn't want to sacrifice a life, when it would be easier to risk one.

After a few moments of silence, Omi resigned. "I will go. That is probably what Chase is wanting with this deal, and it is fair to his conditions."

And Omi was right; Chase was smirking because everything was going according to his plan. Of course, there was always the chance that something could go wrong, and it usually does. Which was why he never completely stuck to one plan.

"No, Omi! You know what happened the last time Chase got his hands on you. He nearly destroyed the world!" she paused and has a realization. "I'll go."

Omi turned around, entirely ready to object to what she says, but she stopped him. "It was my fault that we lost the Shen Gong Wu, and that Clay's in this situation. If I'd been a bit faster, I could have saved him."

Chase contemplated this while they discuss it among themselves. If one Dragon is gone from the group, ultimately they will be weakened. Kimiko could eventually be used as a bargaining chip for Omi when the situation presents itself.

Before the Dragons could object, he agreed to the deal. "You will become one of my servants in exchange for the Vein of Zhen."

There was an unreadable expression on Kimiko's face as he said those words. Chase threw the Shen Gong Wu, and as it flew through the air, he snapped his fingers. Kimiko shifted, becoming a feline—and servant to the renowned Chase Young, before the Vein of Zhen even reached Omi's outstretched hands.


	2. Chapter 2

Clay was very pale, even the color from his hair having been drained to nothing more than a creamy white. He rested on his mat, unable to react when Raimundo and Omi enter the room carrying the Vein of Zhen.

"Master Fung said if we activate the Vein of Zhen again, it will return the disease to the Wu," Omi said more to himself than to Raimundo, who was now crouching beside Clay in case anything went wrong.

"Vein of Zhen!"

The Wu glowed, the four metal prongs at the end of the shaft opening once again. A dark purple substance seemed to work its way from the pores of Clay's skin, from any orifice it could escape from, until all at once it shot back into the Vein of Zhen. It took less than five seconds before the Shen Gong Wu was shut again, waiting to be used once more. Clay's color immediately returned, and a few moments later he was coughing and sitting up slowly.

"Clay, are you alright?" came Omi's instant response. Clay groaned, stretching his limbs with his bones cracking.

"I reckon I am now. That there Wu had me feelin' deader than a Texas armadillo. Thanks y'all." He said, after pulling himself up. "Who'd Kimiko beat fer the Shen Gong Wu?"

"What do you mean?" Raimundo asked.

"Well, didn't she go off after I'd been shot?"

"Oh, yes. She told us that Chase Young had gotten the Wu before she could reach it. And he just turned and vanished!" Omi explained, turning so that he would not have to face Clay to answer the question that he knew was going to pop up.

"Where's Kimiko now?"

An expected silence falls over the room. "Guys, what's goin' on…?"

"Clay, in order for us to get the Vein of Zhen, we had to make a deal with Chase Young…" Omi clenched his fist, closing his eyes and turning back around to face Clay. There would be no honour in not facing the decision they had to make to save Clay.

"He would only trade the Vein of Zhen for one of us."

Immediately he tried to save face. "I told him that I would go! Because that is what he would have wanted. But Kimiko insisted that she go, for she was the one who lost the Wu in the first place." Omi had gotten over his whole sexism spiel years ago; he wasn't about to let it show in his words today.

"We aren't going to get much done about gettin' her back by sitting here," Clay started, making to leave, but Raimundo held him back.

"Clay, dude, you're forgetting just how many warriors Chase has against us now. Ever since he conquered over China's forces, he has more guys than ever—and you know what happened last time we tried to stop him from invading Taiwan. Even with all four of us, we were barely able to stop him, and he still had more forces that could have taken us down if he hadn't been taken down by that one Wu." Yes, the one Wu everyone vowed not to speak about again.

"Just imagine if we tried to take him on with only three of us!" Raimundo looked like he was about to go on more, but Omi held up a hand.

"If you remember to the days when I swore my loyalty to Chase Young, the three of you managed to win me back in a Xiaolin Showdown."

"I get it. If we challenge Chase to a showdown, we can wager for Kimiko back!" Raimundo exclaimed eagerly, feeling a bit more enlightened now that they actually had a chance of Kimiko returning to their side.

"Yes… That is exactly what I was going to say, until you interrupted me." Omi scrunched up his face, but Raimundo knew Omi was only messing with him. The situation right now was more important than getting irritated over something so petty.

Right now, all they could do is wait for another Shen Gong Wu to activate, and hopefully that Chase Young would be there.

.o

Kimiko shouldn't have expected so much in her new role as Chase's servant. She found her main purpose for Chase Young would be as an addition to his kitchen staff—basically to help make the food for his thousands of warriors. At the time she'd been told of this, she was stuck as a tiger, so she couldn't vocalize her protests (how would he expect her to work with paws for hands?)

When he introduced her to who she'd be working with, she noticed all of them were in their human forms, and she guessed that makes sense. The staff was comprised of twenty some people, most of them fair skinned with garments dating back to the Tang Dynasty, though there were a few tanner servants with clothes of all types. They paid her little attention when they arrive, though instantly bowed their heads in a silent acknowledgement to Chase before continuing with their duties.

"They will teach you how to cook what you don't know, and how to perfect what you do know," Chase began, referring to the food that she must serve his warriors. "As they all live in the same segment of my lair, they will show you to your quarters, and warn you of areas you may not enter." And like that, Chase was gone, and she found herself back in her human form. The transformation was painless (though without a doubt it definitely looked more painful from an outside perspective), and the clothes she'd worn as a monk were right back where they were.

With so many big cats here—and not to mention the countless ones that inhabited the citadel—there was no chance that an escape would be easy. One red-haired woman, one who spoke with a Russian accent, called her over. And thus life began as a servant.

The first hours were rather uneventful. She'd been immediately placed to work in the kitchen after Chase exited. They were preparing dinner for _all_ warriors, which took a considerable amount of work considering just how many warriors Chase Young had defeated over the years. Kimiko was introduced to foods and ingredients she'd never even heard of before, animals that would have to be taken down by a team of warriors, plants of every colour. Kimiko wondered where they even acquired these foods when it was pretty much a wasteland around Chase's lair. Only with the help of Shen Gong Wu would they have been able to travel to the lands that contained these beasts.

She was taught how to make soups and how to prepare meats—even the meat of lions. However, considering that Chase Young ate dragons when he _was_ one, the idea didn't seem as odd as it should. By the end of their work, her brain was aching from all the recipes she had to learn in mere hours.

Platters were gathered by servants outside of the kitchen, brought into a room that Kimiko was soon lead into by the kitchen staff. It was a huge room, one with arcs and pillars that maintained the same beautiful architecture as the rest of the citadel, while hosting long rectangular tables in a circular room. Kimiko could see felines of all types prowling around on the second level of the room, weaving in and out of hallways. Perhaps this was a central room? It would make sense to make access to their eating space as easy as possible.

Soon, felines and humans alike began pooling into the room as the time to eat grew near. There were some cats that shifted almost as though at will into a human before taking a seat at a table, while others stayed as they were. Kimiko wondered if they were truly able to shift themselves at will, or if it was Chase's doing for certain servants.

Kimiko stood there awkwardly until a rather large snow leopard pushed her from the back and into the direction of a table that the majority of the kitchen staff was headed to. She shuffled over and stood there, not wanting to take one of their seats and accidentally start any issues, at least not with the people whom she assumed she'd have to be working with for a long time.

After a moment, the Russian from before scoffed, "Gah, go get her a seat!" to a similar looking woman beside her, who sneered and mumbled under her breath before heading off. Kimiko wondered of their relation toward each other, before a seat was presented to her. Chairs were moved aside and finally she was allowed a place to sit.

Since there were already some digging into the food, Kimiko decided as well. She grabbed a plate, and after observing how others collected their food, did so as well, though not as much as she'd normally eat at the temple. All of the talk around her didn't make any sense to her—though she'd only just got here. Maybe this gossip would mean something to her in the future, but wow, her group seemed to love indulging in others' secrets.

All the time she ate, her eyes wandered. There were still some felines filling the tables, many of them digging in mostly to the meat. However, as her eyes ran out of tables to browse, she noticed that Chase Young was not among them.

About half an hour in, Kimiko had already finished her eating, and was waiting for the rest of her team to do so as well. From the corner of her eye she noticed something very white move by, and upon observation, it was a very pale warrior—almost the colour of Jack Spicer, even—carrying a steaming white bowl across the room and out into a hallway with something green sticking out of it. She hadn't noticed any other person taking food out of this room. She stared for a few moments before movement to her right distracted her.

"Come, we will show you to our room," one of the girls said, and they all seemed to get up at the same time, sans a few that had already left. She was led through many hallways, instructed on which rooms that she was allowed to enter, and which she was not. Hallways she should never travel down lest she wanted to get mauled—apparently there's some territory disputes among the kitchen squad and a Wudai Shiguo group, and if she travelled there, she'd best expect to be ripped to shreds based on being placed in the Tang squad.

The sleeping quarters were not much different in appearance to any of the other rooms, except for the ceiling being much higher, with more floors lining the walls. Beds lined each floor, most of them being similar to the cots that they slept in in the temple; a few of them had multiple blankets on them, and some even had animal pelts strewn on top. There was a staircase that spiraled throughout the room, extending to each floor. Kimiko was led to the second floor, and saw that the majority of their beds had skins of sheep lined on their beds.

"You will sleep here." The girl said, pointing to a cot close to the wall, and surrounded by other cots. Once she sat down in her surprisingly soft bed, the kitchen staff seemed to loosen up. Some of them returned to their feline body, sprawling their huge bodies across the floor. Kimiko scooted up against the wall, resorting to staring at them instead of resting.

"What was Chase thinking, adding another person to the team? It's not like we can't handle the load already," was the first thing out of the mouth of one of them.

"It can't hurt to have someone else on the team. Re did get a lot more recently, and it 'ould be runderful if you'd rub my back, Rasha," said another in regards to a husky panther, who padded over to the chocolate skinned female. He hovered over her before planting his paws directly on her back, kneading as regular cats do, claws and all. Kimiko gawked, wondering why she wasn't complaining about the claws.

"So, is this all you guys do all day? Cook and what not?" Kimiko started, wanting to at least get some conversation in, since the majority of her time here so far had been in silence. They stared at her, an awkward silence making her tense before one of them spoke up.

"For the most part, yes. We are not warriors. Well, except for Washa and Kronos next to you."

The snow leopard who'd shoved her before curled up close to Kimiko, grunting slightly as he shifted off of his mat and all over the floor (and into Kimiko's personal space).

"They were taken off of warrior duty for certain war injuries we're not allowed to discuss. I'm Tak," she introduces herself, rolling into her own cot. "That's Beebi, Xiaocho, Tanaka, Rei, and Ren." She pointed to the other five closest to her, all whom settle down after a moment.

"After breakfast, we spar against each other for about four hours, as Lord Young commands it. Afterwards, we are free to do as we please before dinner," Rei explained. "Stuff like studying or hunting. Though that's what the actual hunters do… But it is nice to roam outside of these walls sometimes."

"Oh, Chiyin, did I ever tell you about that fish I caught in the waterfall yesterday?"

And then they were all talking amongst themselves, while that line reminded Kimiko of an issue. "Um, guys, where's the bathroom?"

The Russian red head spoke up, "Weren't you paying attention when we brought you here? It's right outside here, third door to the right."

.o

Sleeping was a pretty restless task. While Kimiko was surrounded by tens of giant, fluffy cats (including one very intrusive snow leopard that just wouldn't stay out of her personal space and had ended up with his legs over her that night), she couldn't help but wonder what the other monks were doing right now, if they were trying to formulate a plan to help her escape. Life as a feline so far wasn't as bad as the stories shared within the temple made it out to be—there was no whipping of disobedient cats, there wasn't a bunch of shed fur littering the floor (in fact, one could see their own reflection in the floors), Chase Young wasn't 'using' them for his own personal satisfaction (that one was one of the biggest rumours that spread like a disease amongst monks. When Kimiko brought it up, they all laughed at her as though she were crazy). If anyone had asked her, she could compare it to a life as a Xiaolin monk, doing chores (though her chores were considerably less tedious now and had more to do with meaningful tasks).

She was trapped here. Surrounded by hundreds of claw-tipped felines that would be watching her every move. With the amount of work that it took to make that dinner, she could only imagine how alert she'd have to be to cook multiple dishes at once tomorrow. She needed to be rested to keep her wits about her. So she settled for a light sleep.

.o

The second day, she was woken up early to prepare breakfast for the others. Raw meat was hauled out of the kitchen for those who'd settled for a bloodier diet, while pounds of it was hammered and chopped and tossed onto the fire in the kitchen. Eggs cracked, berries roasted, an abnormally large amount of sausage thrown onto a grill. When she asked where most of this food comes from, Tanaka responded that they foraged and hunted in the Jungle of Neither Here Nor There, since it was close to the Land of Nowhere and they could harbor many species of meat there, similar to farming them. For more exotic meats—such as the lion—they had to use other modes of transportation, provided by Chase, of course. By the time they'd finished cooking for breakfast, Kimiko's arms were sore from it all.

She ate with the others, much more willing to open her mouth this time now that she'd had time to get to know them yesterday evening. She was still a little slow with their names, but given time, she'd be able to recognise them more easily.

After breakfast, she got to hang out with her group. And by hanging out, that meant sparring. She was led through a hallway that differed in colour scheme from the rest, consisting of earthy browns, reds, blacks and white. The room they entered was very similar to the room Chase had fought Master Monk Guan in many years back, except this one had a dirt floor and the walls were lined with many different weapons and tools to use. It was already filled with warriors who'd finished their breakfast, some training by themselves, but many with at least one other partner. Tak noted that this training room was reserved for those who weren't frontliners or main warriors to begin with.

"We'd still be called into battle, but only if for some reason, the frontliners have failed."

Training was the same as they would have trained in the Xiaolin temples, sans any actual Shen Gong Wu. Because Chase's warriors extended a millennium, the contraptions on the wall ranged from primitive to downright alien. But that didn't stop her fellow kitchenmates from handing her different weapons and seeing her abilities in wielding them. She wasn't exactly proficient in the older models, not knowing how to properly use the majority of them without help, but she'd found a staff with scythes on both ends particularly interesting, and practiced with that amongst other weapons against Rei, who was proficient in fighting with a sword.

Training like this allowed her to put herself back into the temple, fighting with her friends and not servants.

Training was followed by an hour of cooling down, and boy, did Kimiko need it. Xiaocho could fire arrows from a bow faster than any normal human could, and dodging them while keeping up her defense against Rei proved to be a more difficult challenge than she anticipated.

Kimiko was invited to spend a few hours with Tak to join her in the literature dome, which Kimiko figured couldn't hurt. As much as she'd like to just lie down and rest the soreness of her muscles away, she trudged up long winding stairs with Tak until they reached it. Surprisingly, it had _way_ more scrolls and books than Kimiko would have thought. Then again, a thousand and a half years was more than enough time to amass this much literature into one room.

The texts came in all different languages, presumably for the different cultures and languages of the people Chase was harboring now. Tak wandered off, leaving Kimiko to find what she wanted.

Her browsing led her to find texts about the Xiaolin temple and its history and involvement in battles, which she absorbed much info on during her free time before dinner inevitably came. Chase Young came up during the battle that happened over 1500 years ago, and it even mentioned Master Monk Guan, how one could not exist without the other—how Guan is immortal because of Chase Young's Heylin treachery, and then some. Omi had written something describing what would have happened if Guan had gone to the Heylin side instead of Chase, and how it would inevitably be worse than the fate they had now with Chase, as Hannibal, Guan, and Wuya would be a worse combination than Chase working against Hannibal and Wuya… But she never got a chance to finish reading his writings.

Dinner time seemed to creep up on her faster than she expected, because Tak was telling her to follow once more to the kitchen. Dinner was basically the same food as yesterday, so Kimiko had an easier time handling the dishes she'd been ordered to cook again.

At the table, she noticed once again the albino-esque man carrying the bowl with a green object sticking out, out of the dining hall.

"Hey, what's the stuff that guy is carrying? I don't remember seeing you guys cook something green like that?" Kimiko pointed to the man with her chopsticks before slurping down thick noodles.

"Oh, that? That's uh, Chase's Rao Mang Rone soup," Kimchee, the one who'd been massaged by Washa the other day, spoke up. "Really nasty stuff."

.o

Nightfall came once more, and once again, Kronos was all over her bed. Instead of sitting uncomfortably against him, she resigned to it and snuggled into his furry backside. The girls didn't have much to talk about tonight, though among them, there was a new rumour that Wuya was talking with Hannibal Bean again, and that they were doing a lot more than just talking. The thought of that made Kimiko shudder; how was it even possible? She didn't want to think on that. First the rumour about Chase and his cats, now a 1500 year old spirit-turned-human and a fruit? Gross.

.o

The third day, Chase invited her to spar with him.

That certainly was a brow-raiser, considering her purpose here was supposed to be of a humble food servant and not much more. She hadn't seen much of Chase at all in the couple of days she'd been here. She wondered why he wanted to spar with her all of a sudden.

She'd begun walking toward the training room that her kitchen group had used yesterday, but the messenger who'd given her the instructions from Chase pointed her into a different hallway, to a set of doors that once open, revealed the training room that Guan had defeated Chase in, containing the same spiral floor and cats' eye decoration on the walls.

Chase stood at the opposite side of the spiral floor, hands behind his back and facing the entrance.

"Glad to see you could make it, young one," he began.

"As if I had a choice," was Kimiko's snarky reply.

The lion who'd been guiding her disappeared, and it was just them.

"I am here to test your full fighting capabilities, so that when the time comes, I will know what to do with you when conquering another nation." Of course, that wasn't her true purpose for being here. He didn't need her to take over the world. If he was going to have her around, he may as well learn more of her weaknesses for any battle he may have with her in the future—if she'd somehow manage to fall from his command.

"I don't have to fight for you."

"You will fight for me."

"Yeah, what makes you so su—" but Chase was already upon her, palm open in an obvious strike. Kimiko gasped, ducking and using her outstretched arm to hook Chase's neck and drag him to the ground, her legs working to trip him up. He worked this to his advantage, however, by catching her abdomen unguarded and forcing her into the air. The wind was knocked out of her, leaving her disoriented, only to find herself in Chase's arms as he caught her from what would have been a most painful fall onto steel.

He steadied her to her feet, only to have her push away moments later. Her frustration got the better of her and fire was shot at him, only for him to easily dodge them. "If you really want to hurt me, you'll have to do better than that, young monk."

Kimiko paused, staring down at her hands. "Wait, shouldn't you have my powers, like what you did with Omi…?"

Chase lifted a brow. "You mean you never attempted to use your powers inside of here yet?"

Her face flushed. "It's not like that was on my mind when I'm surrounded by giant cats that could kill me!" Her face only turned brighter of embarrassment when she realised her words weren't helping her case. That smirk on his face wasn't helping either! Oh, she would wipe it off his face real good…

"The deal was not for you to pledge your loyalty to me. I am not interested in owning your element, nor your powers. My dragon form wields it quite nicely. Omi, on the other hand… he possessed power far beyond the three other Dragons. Power I wanted for myself. You are merely a pawn in the grander scheme of things."

Kimiko didn't respond, whether from anger toward him or just not knowing what to say, he didn't know.

"You will stand and fight or risk a most humiliating defeat," he knew those words were ones that Omi used quite frequently during face offs with Heylin members, and ones that would spark a fight from Kimiko simply from stealing his phrases.

Of course, Kimiko's face scrunched up in invited anger, her pose becoming more trained, tactical. "You're on."

.o

Four hours. Four hours of the most intense sparring Kimiko had ever gone through. At the end of the session, Chase was barely breaking a sweat while Kimiko's clothes were drenched in a sea of her own sweat. Her own fire being used so much could have been a contributor to that, though.

Chase really didn't expect her to keep up with him, seeing as he'd been strengthening his stamina for over a millennium, while she's only had maybe twenty years tops to develop her own.

Before Kimiko began to make another move at him, he holds up his palm. "Enough. You have fought well, but there is still much to learn." He was actually quite impressed with just how well she'd mastered her element. The way she wielded fire was legendary in comparison to the previous Dragon of Fire, who did not see much hand-to-hand combat action against Chase to begin with.

"Oh thank god," She immediately dropped her defensive stance, knees nearly giving out on her.

"You may take the day off from kitchen duties, but tomorrow you will be granted no exception."

Chase was on his way out, but Kimiko stopped him.

"Wait, I've been here for days with no place to shower. And I stink," she put it bluntly. "I can't go walking around smelling like this."

Chase's eyes glimmered for a second before turning away. "Someone will be here to guide you to the bathing facilities momentarily." And as soon as he said that, he was gone behind the pillars.

Kimiko wondered what was up with his habits of not sticking around for long, but it wasn't really a primary concern. Right now, she was more concerned about getting out of these nasty clothes.

.o

The bath area, as was most areas, was occupied by others. However, all of them were human, not a single spot of fur to be found. There were wash racks and pools of water where a group of people could hang around, conversing if they'd like.

Kimiko wasn't exactly on terms with any of them here as far as she could see, so she took the more convenient approach and chose a concealed shower area. The lion who'd been guiding her handed her a new set of robes, suspiciously similar to the old ones, but she wouldn't be able to ask how he acquired these, since in his lion form, he could not speak. Instead, she accepted it, and took do cleaning herself, stripping once inside the shower and placing the old garments outside.

The warm water was a welcome change from the sticky mess her body was covered in, and it felt much nicer than the wash racks back at the temple. Water pooled down onto the stone floor below.

By the end of it, she felt fresh, and ready to take on another day of this odd little 'paradise'.


	3. Chapter 3

At one point, Kimiko started noticing other felines growing restless, mainly the female warriors. Such as becoming more affectionate, as well as moody. She herself had been feeling a bit strange in the past few days, but she really hadn't thought much about it.

It was only when Beebi, who'd taken form of a tiger, started grooming _her_, that she had to pop the question.

"Why are you guys acting so weird?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chiyin spoke up almost defensively.

"Like, you guys don't normally act so touchy-feely. It's starting to weird me out."

There was a pause, before Tak had an 'ah-hah' moment. "Ohh, I guess Chase wouldn't really have the mind to tell you. Our oestrus cycles are about to start."

That word sounded familiar, but Kimiko wasn't exactly sure on it, either. "What's that?"

"It's when we're prime to mate," Tak responded.

"We've been feline warriors of Chase for centuries now, and normally we would go through the cycle every few months due to our feline identities. However, going through it every few months would be distracting and unbeneficial for Chase, back when we more active in combat," Tanaka added in, stretching out onto Beebi's furry form. "So we had to train our bodies to establish a synched up 'heat' cycle, once a year, for a week. The dates vary, but it generally occurs around the first full moon of spring."

"So wait, I know about animals and the mating cycles and what not, but doesn't that mean the men here are going to go chasing after you and stuff?" Kimiko shuddered at the thought of getting knocked up by the enemy, and she was pretty sure Chase wouldn't like having one of his warriors burnt to a crisp by her if they ever tried to make a move on her.

"During this time, females are restricted to one half of the citadel, and males are restricted to the other half. Also, feeding times for both genders are separated, making it a real pain in the ass for us because that means we have to change up the foods that we normally cook that need to be served hot. And we have to work during the cycle which is extra hard," Tanaka finished.

"This is to prevent any accidental pregnancies," Tak continued, adjusting the pelts that she'd been sewing together for a better angle. "There's only a few males allowed to walk around, as injuries to their face and nose in the past have damaged their ability to smell."

That explained why Kronos and Washa weren't present in their corner of the sleeping quarters.

"Well… What about me? I have one of those cat forms, so will I have to go through these things too?"

The Russian—known as Strika—grunted from her cot. "Since you're new and you only acquired your form recently, you _probably_ shouldn't be able to synch up with us."

"Except that's not always the case," Chiyin interjected, "Since Beebi got screwed by… uh, what was his name again? It's been like forever ago, so I can't remember."

"Thuulio," Tak sneered the name, a frown settling on her face soon after.

"Yeah, Thuulio, what a little shit. Beebi went into her heat cycle like the first week she got here and Thuulio got her pregnant. It threw off all our cycles, especially when they were born." Chiyin groaned.

"Wait, what happened to the babies? Did you guys keep them or something?" Kimiko couldn't imagine the evil lord letting infants run around, though the idea of raising innocent kids into full-grown evil warriors was one that seemed all too possible.

"They were eaten," said Rei, who'd been silent for most of the conversation. "Haven't you heard that lions will eat cubs in order to make the women go into heat again? That's basically what happened with a few of the males, and now they're all gone."

"That's… that's horrible. Didn't mean to bring up something like that." Kimiko apologized.

"Nah, it only made Chase mad and they all got their asses beat for it," Chiyin reassured Kimiko.

The conversation started to lull after a while.

"I have been feeling pretty weird lately. Do you think I could be going through what Beebi went through? I mean the early heat thing?" Kimiko finally asked.

There was a few shrugs before Strika responded. "Maybe. All you can do is wait."

.o

Chase was not above requesting assistance from others to push his plans forward. Jack Spicer's assistance had been asked of in the past, now was no different.

The genius's monitors were easy to access (though Chase would not admit that manipulating technology took more effort than normal due to his rather pre-modern disposition towards said technology), and once he was connected to Jack Spicer's lab, he cleared his throat to let his presence be known.

Jack was dancing to rather loud music—in his underwear, no less—with robots hovering around the room (one with a camera on its shoulder), cleaning the room and rearranging papers tacked to the wall. His earbuds blocked out Chase's grunt. Fortunately one of the robots had caught sight of Chase in the monitor, and tapped on Jack's shoulder to get his attention.

"Sir, there is—"

Jack spun around and yelled "What?!" over his music, but immediately notices Chase Young and flounders to get behind a table.

"Chase! What an honour it is to have you hack into my tech once again!" Jack started, marveling at his evil hero while he waited for a Jack Bot to fetch him more appropriate attire.

"I did not call you to hear your obsession," Chase quickly interrupted him. If he didn't, Jack would never shut up. "I am requesting your assistance."

While Jack was still a fanboy of Chase Young, he'd also wizened up over the years. Chase found that talking to him as though Jack were beneath him ended up with Jack refusing to cooperate with Chase in the past. Jack didn't see the point of letting people insult and walk all over him, and it has shaped him up to be an actually tolerable person to be around. So asking instead of demanding was the best way to get something out of him.

"Really? Something from me?" At last, a bot returned with clothes, and as he dressed up, Jack asked, "What could you possibly want from me?"

"The Chameleon bots that you have been using these past few months. I am interested in using one."

"I still have one that's functional, just needs a minor repair to its loyalty chip—shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but I can have it to you in no time!" Jack stands up straight, walking out of view from the monitor before returning with two bots hovering behind him, carrying a silver human-esque robot before placing it down on the table in the center of the room.

"…by the way, what do you need it for, anyway?"

Chase sighed. "If you needed to know, I would have told you."

Spicer had mellowed out as he aged, taking to creating more elaborate schemes in order to retrieve Shen Gong Wu, almost to the point where Chase could consider himself impressed. Jack once even had the skill to trap three of the Xiaolin Dragons under his control with the Zing Zom Bone until Clay played for their freedom in a Showdown. Now that Jack was aware of a future that could be ruled by him, he was trying more than ever to make it a reality.

.o

Spicer was right; it didn't take long for him to have the Chameleon bot to him. Less than half an hour later and the bizarre robot was standing before him, currently in the form of Jack himself in order to fly with him to Chase's lair.

"How does one get it to shift?" Chase asks once it and Jack stopped fighting over something they'd been discussing during their flight here.

Jack stood up straighter, turning to the Chameleon bot and pressing something on his watch.

The robot shifted in metal plates, the sound of cogs clanking and screws automatically securing themselves into place as its new appearance tanks hold—a monk of the Xiaolin Temple, Master Fung.

"Excellent. I've heard you programmed the forms of the Xiaolin Dragons into your creature in the past. I only require the form of the Dragon of Fire. Does this bot carry that form?" Chase asked. He shouldn't be impressed with Jack's ability to create such devices, but the realism of the bot's form when it was done shifting was incredible. No metal being should be that realistic.

"Kimiko? Yeah, and I'd say it's pretty awesome," Jack said, reveling in a moment of gloating before catching Chase's stare losing interest. He coughed, righting himself, and pressing on the watch again.

And then the Chameleon bot took hold of Kimiko's form.

"That is all I require of you. You may leave now."

Jack blinked, "Wait, don't you want the remote to change it?"

"I have no need for it. This form will do fine."

"Alright then… See you later, maybe?"

Of course there was no hope in that sentence coming true.

.o

With the Ying Yang Yo-Yo in hand, Chase entered the Ying Yang World.

It had been centuries since he'd last entered the Ying Yang World, mostly due to the fact that he hadn't had the Yo-Yo in order to do so without losing part of his Chi. While Wuya was still semi-loyal to him in her own twisted way, she'd won by a landslide both halves of the Yo-Yo—literally by a landslide. The Xiaolin Showdown she was in featured active terrain that had overpowered the monk she'd faced by burying them in a landslide, giving them no chance to catch up to her.

Now with the Ying Yang Yo-Yo, he could finally visit this backwards world. He did not come alone—the Chameleon bot trailed close behind.

Chase didn't venture far before rows and rows of Chi bottles sprang up from the will of his mind, and before long, the Chi bottle of Omi appears on a shelf near him. The bottle was currently empty, which made sense considering Omi had not entered the Ying Yang World since the last time Chase had tried a plan similar to the one he was concocting now. Because there was no Chi in the bottle, there would be no Chi Guardian lurking around, thankfully.

He grabbed hold of the bottle, and shortly after, the world around them dissolves into a blank, black void, lined with white chains swirling around them gently.

Chase orders the Chameleon bot to sit in a small box with bars all around it—and the box appears as he describes it—a prison with no real walls, which in itself, is the very definition of the Ying Yang World, despite the ability to warp the World with one's own imagination.

Once the bot was stationed inside of the cell, Chase sealed it with magic of his own so that it could not be altered with the passing time of the Ying Yang World's mysterious planes. But if one were to touch it—even the Chameleon bot itself—the seal would be broken. However, based on how Spicer's Chameleon bot's have worked in the past, based on his observations, this one should not move unless spoken to.

The Ying Yang World distorts as Chase Young leaves, once again becoming a free-willed dimension and shifting to its own desires.

Now all Chase had to do was wait for another Shen Gong Wu to activate itself.


	4. Chapter 4

They were sparring again. This time with rods rather than their powers.

Kimiko used her stick to bolt herself into Chase, who grabbed her ankles and spun, using her momentum to slam her into the wall.

"I thought we weren't aiming to kill!" Kimiko spat once she recovered from the ground.

"You can't tell me you weren't trying to do exactly that just now," Chase replied calmly, walking up to her and holding out a hand. She wasn't ready to give up, though, and instead used her outstretched leg to sweep under Chase's feet. He was one step ahead, though, easily jumping to dodge her leg and planting the end of his staff squarely in between Kimiko's shoulders when she was trying to get up, forcing her back onto the floor. He carefully avoided the large wound on her side, which had resulted from her negligence while wielding her staff. How she managed to cut herself with a dull staff was beyond his comprehension.

"While you spar well with a weapon, it shows how weak your skills in close range combat are when it comes to indirect attacks. I'd suggest you work on that." Chase looked like he was going to say something else, but then he kneeled down, observing Kimiko more closely, and much too close for Kimiko's comfort in an open position like this. His face was one of pure concentration, his eyes intense and pupils dilating from a slit.

"I know that scent," he murmured, though Kimiko really couldn't smell anything aside from their sweat and the room itself. "You're about to enter heat."

Kimiko had hoped that she'd at least luck out on that one thing, but lady luck wasn't shining in her direction today. A second later she realised she hadn't thought to ask her kitchenmates what happened to Chase during this time! They'd mentioned that those with animal attributes would be affected (including those who wielded the Monkey Staff, when Kimiko asked), and it just now occurred to her that Chase had a dragon form.

However, Chase pulled back, taking her staff with him, leaving Kimiko to pick herself off the ground as the dark lord stood over her.

"Our time training is over for today," he said, taking a few steps toward the exit before pausing. "I would advise that you keep your distance from me. I am sure one of my warriors has informed you of what happens to me during this time of year."

Kimiko put her hands on her hips. "Yeah, they told me about that whole heat thing or whatever. You really should have told me about that yourself, by the way, rather than leaving me to find out about it by myself. Not cool."

He disregarded her comment. "Someone will be with you shortly to lead you to the medical ward to heal that gash of yours." And then he disappeared.

She didn't have much time to contemplate on Chase's words before she heard a grunt behind her, turning to see a white (albino?) cat with no markings. Their red eyes were particularly unnerving, and the feline huffed, making a gesture with their head as though to get her to follow.

Kimiko noticed that they were leading her down a different path, one she hadn't seen before, as they made their way toward the medical area. Along the way, she glanced at a few doors. Most of them were just areas for other felines, but one door, she noticed, was marked with hanzi that looked suspiciously like "Shen Gong Wu," but she didn't get a clear look as she was ushered forward.

Finally, they reached a small room lined with cabinets. Upon passing through the doorway, the big cat shifted shape into his original human form, lined with the normal bracelets and beads of Chase's many warriors. The only discernable difference was that the warrior's neck was lined with white leaves and read beads, rather than teeth, claws and skulls. His skin was a pale white and it confirmed her suspicions that this man was albino, with pallor akin to Jack Spicer. He was bald, the only colour on him being two red eyes staring blankly at her.

This guy looked all too familiar. "Hey… are you the guy who brings Chase his soup?" she asked, moving close to the walls of the room to avoid getting in his way.

"Yes." His voice was very dry, and cracked even with a short word like that. The majority of the time spent there was in silence, him assessing her wound from a distance, judging on what should be used to remedy the issue. After a moment, he bent out of view and produced a jar full of worm-like creatures, packed tightly into the container. When he removed one of the creatures, it turned out it was a slug.

The man held up the slug to Kimiko and said, "Eat."

She made a face. "Gross, no way!"

"It will remove pain from wound. Your wound not need bandaging; it will heal itself."

She hesitated, taking the slug from him. "Can't I at least cook it first?"

"No."

After convincing herself that it's _just_ a slug and not something worse, she swallowed it whole, nearly throwing it back up, but managing to get it down while cringing at the slime now left behind in her throat.

"You leave now," he said.

.o

When Kimiko cracked her door open that night (managing to climb over the cats without them hearing her was a feat only successful due to her stealth training at the Xiaolin Temple), she noticed that the lion normally prowling around this hallway was nowhere to be seen. Either she was switching duties with another cat, or she was around the corner in another hall. Whatever the case may be, she took this opportunity to creep silently down the halls, in the direction she believed to be of that room she'd seen earlier today.

She'd gone down the wrong paths twice—one lead to some entrance marked with hanzi denoting something like "prisoners of war" and the other hall led to a dead end with hanzi so ancient, she couldn't even begin to fathom it. She nearly tripped over a sleeping panther stationed at an unmarked door along the way—they blended into the dark way too well for her to be roaming around so carelessly.

Finally, she reached the door marked with the familiar hanzi of Shen Gong Wu. She was surprised that it remained unguarded, but didn't let that cautious thought get in the way of her quietly sliding the door aside and moving in.

The room was like an extended closet, and walking through the entrance, she shuddered, as though passing through some sort of magic barrier. It must have been used to keep Wuya out. Kimiko remembered Chase was fairly surprised when he'd found that Wuya was in possession of the Yang Yo-Yo that one time.

While the closet held a majority of the Wu that Chase had amassed over the years, it seemed to be lacking some of the ones she was certain he'd won in showdowns in the past. Wu like the Hora Mantaskin, Kaijin Charm (Chase had won it from Omi quite a while back, and still hasn't given it up yet), Ying Yang Yo-Yo, Wuuyin Wilter–all of those seemed to be missing.

Her hands traced along Wu that she was once so familiar with—the Star Hanabi, Array of Ra's Rays, Fist of Tebigong—all stolen by Wuya, and then to the Wu that was better locked up forever—like the Sapphire Dragon. She shuddered, remembering being trapped under the cold, calculated control of this dragon. It occurred to her that she could release its hell upon the warriors here, and perhaps even Chase himself, if his fire power wasn't strong enough to render the Sapphire Dragon into its harmless state now.

She grabbed it, but was startled into dropping it when she heard someone clearing their throat.

She turned to face a rather unimpressed Chase Young.

She gasps, quickly grabbing for the Sapphire Dragon and holding it in front of her, as though she were going to use it. "But how did you know?

A screech came from the darkness, and a crow hopped out from within the shadows of the shelves, swooping down to take the Sapphire Dragon right out of Kimiko's hands. It flew into the hallway, eventually morphing into a small puma. Its black eyes stared knowingly up at Kimiko, glinting in the low light as it handed the Shen Gong Wu over to Chase.

"My servant was placed there to alert me about any object that enters this room. You are no exception, Xiaolin Dragon."

Kimiko looked down, embarrassed as she was forced from the room by an invisible presence. Whatever it may have been, she didn't get to think about it. She found herself shrinking, with bones shifting, as she turned back into her tiger form.

"Tomorrow you will clean this entire temple, with others, until I see fit. Your punishment this time is light, but if you do this again, I assure you that it will be much, much worse."

The puma sat at the door as it closed behind it, acting as a more physical guardian than before. Chase himself motioned with his fingers for Kimiko to leave. Once she disappeared into the darkness of the hallway to her room, he handed the Sapphire Dragon back to the puma to return it to its place on the shelf, and then leaving the puma to continue its guard duty.

While it was fun to see Wuya get caught for attempting to access this room, it was much more fun to see Chase's own warriors caught in the act, the puma reasoned.

.o

Surprisingly, a Shen Gong Wu activated itself in the middle of the night.

Wuya had woken Chase up with a scream that echoed through the halls. Normally, her reactions to a Shen Gong Wu activated were not this dramatic—then again, one hadn't activated in the middle of the night, either, at least in a long time.

The Wu, the Tenchi Render, could raise armies from the ground, literally made up of the elements surrounding the user. Chase had no real use for this Wu, but he was sure that the monks would be there, knowing the power behind this Wu. And as such, he set off in the Wu's general direction with only the Yang Yo-Yo in tow, and Wuya following close by.

He found himself in a maze-like forest of tall plants similar to hedges. It wasn't a completely untouched area, as flat stones arranged themselves in the ground in a path stretching into the reaches of the forest, meaning humans had once found themselves here. As expected, Chase spotted all three Dragons scouting the area.

Upon first inspections, he'd spotted the Tenchi Render on the ground in the shadows of a tree. He moved around to avoid them detecting him at first, but quickly enough that he was able to make contact with the Wu right as one of the warriors did. The Wu started to glow, followed by simultaneous gasps.

"Chase Young, what have you done with Kimiko?" was the first words that came, from Omi. The Wu was temporarily forgotten in favour of more distressing matters, but Omi did not let go of it during their interaction.

Omi wasn't so specific in his words, which was why Chase was able to say, "I've locked her in the Ying Yang World. As she is, she is of no use to me."

In the back, one could hear Clay say, "You no good snake!" while Raimundo stood nearby Omi in case anything fishy happened.

"How are we supposed to believe that you are telling the truth, Chase—"

But Chase interrupted him. "I believe this is the time to call for a Xiaolin Showdown?"

Omi looked back down at the Wu. "Uh, right."

"I wager my Yang Yo-Yo against your Crouching Cougar," Chase said, after noting the Wu in Omi's other hand. It was what the monks had used to reach here in the first place, as Dojo apparently didn't want to fly that evening, even after waking everyone up with his normal jitters of a newly activated Shen Gong Wu.

"I accept your challenge. The game is maze runner. First to reach the exit wins."

Chase smirked. Both Wu would be ineffective; considering how narrow the walls in most Xiaolin mazes used to be, the Crouching Cougar wouldn't be able to take Omi far, and Chase didn't dare use the Yang Yo-Yo without its counterpart.

"Xiaolin Showdown!"

The vegetation around them seemed to grow even bigger, to impossibly tall heights. The man-placed stones on the ground spread out and lifted them into the air. It'd been a while since space elements had been thrown into the past few showdowns, so it was a refresher for Chase to look down and see nothing but galaxies and stars.

The hedges had now become solid walls, albeit still soft in appearance with leaves. They'd have to watch their step since there were large gaps between each stone they'd have to jump onto. When the world stopped shifting, they both shouted the traditional _Gong Yi Tanpai!_

Further away, out of their range of sight, they could hear two earth-shaking thuds. At first it meant nothing, but almost immediately the ground beneath them began to tilt, forcing them to skip on stones toward the source of the tilting. The maze kept tilting as though passing over waves, making it harder for either of them to keep balance as they searched for an exit out of the middle of the maze.

Within a minute of the showdown beginning, Omi saw what had caused the initial shift in balance. A giant rock ball was hurtling through the walls, one blocking his path. Not wanting to be crushed by the mobile rock, he was forced to backtrack, turning into a hallway just in time to see the ball speed past him.

Chase and Omi ended up crossing paths once, with another rock following close behind Chase. Omi tried to catch him off guard by using his water abilities to distract Chase, but in these close proximities, the amount of water ended up lifting the boulder and hurtling it several feet away into the air. When it touched back down onto the stone, the resulting vibration threw off both of their equilibrium, rocking the maze hard enough that when Omi landed, it took an extra three seconds for his feet to actually reach the ground.

Chase wasn't actually planning on winning this showdown; he needed for the monk to win his own Shen Gong Wu, so when he found the exit, he instead waited nearby until Omi stumbled into view.

Upon seeing Chase near the exit, Omi once again used his water powers to jettison himself past Chase, who didn't even lift a finger. Omi would have found that suspicious had he not been blinded by the flashing lights of the Xiaolin showdown as it returned the environment to its original condition. Omi emerged victorious, the won Shen Gong Wu in hand.

Omi turned to Chase, a look of confusion in his eyes that let Chase know he knew something was up. But before he could voice his concerns, one second the Wu were in his arms, and the next second, he was left with the Crouching Cougar and Yang Yo-Yo. Omi blinked, and then an all too familiar cackle echoed in the night.

"Guys, look!" Raimundo pointed toward a black object moving in the sky. Closer inspection would reveal Hannibal Bean's espionage, Ying-Ying, flying off with the Tenchi Render.

The bird had flown too far from the scene to be able to chase after it, and the sudden appearance of Hannibal Bean—or even just his partner—only spelled dark times for everyone here.

"What do you think Hannibal Bean wanted the Tenchi Render for?" Omi asked apprehensively.

"Isn't it obvious? He's obviously up to something. That bean hasn't shown his ugly mug in months!" Raimundo replied exasperated, throwing his hands up in the air. "

"If I am correct, he may be planning to attack us now that Kimiko is gone. After all, we cannot complete our Ryulong Dragon formation without her, and Hannibal cleaned the ground beneath us whenever one of us was gone."

"Wiped the floor," Clay said on the side.

Chase narrowed his eyes in the direction that the bird disappeared in. If he knew Hannibal Bean, and he did, then Hannibal had something up his sleeve. He needed to return to his lair to inform his warriors. He saw no purpose in hanging around any longer, seeing as his Shen Gong Wu bait had been delivered, so he made a quick and quiet retreat.

.o

"I dunno Omi, I just think it's too convenient that Chase just _happened_ to have the Yang Yo-Yo on him for wrastlin' up this Wu. F'r all we know, Kimiko might not even be there," Clay offered, swallowing the pork loin he'd been chewing halfway through that sentence.

"Yeah, and since when is Chase Young known for playing around in the Ying Yang World anyway?" Raimundo added. "Also, if you haven't forgotten, we wouldn't be able to go into the Ying Yang World without turning evil!"

Omi held up a finger, signaling for Raimundo to start digging in to his own plate while Omi spoke. "Dojo explained this to me once. Grand Master Dashi used the Ying and Yang Yo-Yo to enter the Ying Yang World, and once there, he split it up and hid the Yang Yo-Yo inside of Dojo's head. But in order to escape without losing the good Chi within them, he had to find Dojo's and his own Chi bottles. With those Chi bottles, they were able to leave the Ying Yang World with good on their side, even with only one Yo-Yo."

It was silent for a few minutes, only the sound of Dragons chewing their food in contemplation making noise.

"I guess we could try it," Raimundo broke the silence, "It's the best we can do, and if Kimiko's not there, oh well, we can always come back."

"Chase Young is not the type of Heylin that lies about such things," Omi said. "If he says Kimiko is there, then she has to be."

"I reckon you're right," Clay finished. "Figure we're gonna do this after chow time's over?"

"Yes. We leave after dinner!"

.o

"Remember, we must imagine what we are looking for, and the Ying Yang World will reveal it," Omi commented as they walked through an endless plane of monochrome.

Not soon after, the three Dragons walked through a heavy fog that shrouded their vision. On the other side they found themselves walking on a black plane instead of the white ground they'd first entered on. The only light that seemed to enter bounced off of eerie chains extending into the vast void above.

It only took a few steps before the Chameleon bot was spotted inside of the cage, still powered as though no time had passed at all. Such was the doing of the Ying Yang World.

"Kimiko! You are not a big tiger anymore!" Omi exclaimed, running up to the cage. The Chameleon bot turned to see the source of the noise. "Oh, I am so glad to see you!"

As soon as Omi touched the bars of the cage, the seal Chase Young had originally set broke. The Ying Yang World's incredible power took hold of the bars now that that seal was gone, inverting the bars so far inward that it pierced the Chameleon bot like a bear trap, causing it to explode in a colourful display of shards of metal and springs.

The Dragons jumped back in time to avoid most of the shrapnel, Omi barely escaping with only a few nicks and scratches.

"He lied to us!" Raimundo yelled after he was sure there was no more airborne scrap flying about.

"Technically, he did not say _which_ Kimiko was in here," Omi offered, shrugging his shoulders.

"I just hope the real Kimiko is okay," Clay mumbled to the side, picking himself up and brushing the remaining scrap off of himself.

"Anyway, let's get back to finding those bottles."

It wasn't long before the rows of Chi bottles found _them_, rather than them finding it. They surrounded the Dragons like the last time they'd visited, blank containers extending beyond into the darkness.

Though Raimundo and Clay were able to spot their own Chi bottles within moments, Omi noticed his was not appearing, no matter which way he looked, no matter how much he willed the Ying Yang World to make it appear. In his time spent trapped in the Ying Yang World long ago, he'd learned to control it through will alone, but it seemed either the Ying Yang World had changed, or his methods had gotten stale.

"My friends, it appears I cannot find my own Chi bottle."

"You sure, Omi? Because we've got ours right here." Raimundo asked while his eyes darted around in case it was somewhere Omi hadn't checked.

"This seems mighty suspicious, like I said before," Clay said, scratching his chin. "Only bad news here."

"How are we going to get you out, Omi? You know what happened last time you left here without your good Chi! I don't want a repeat of you kicking my butt." The Brazilian rubbed his rear as though it still smarted from that thorough beating so many years ago.

"Fear not. As Master Fung did, I too will enter a meditative state to prevent Chase Young from turning me to the Heylin side once again." Omi turned to face his two friends." Use your Chi bottles to remain good. I am sure Master Fung will understand the pulling force of the situation, and do his best to take care of me while I'm down in service.

They paused for a moment before Raimundo corrected him, "Gravity of the situation, and out of service, Omi." Correcting Omi had basically become second nature.

Omi handed the Yang Yo-Yo to Raimundo. "Keep the bottles on your lips so that when we depart the Ying Yang World, your Chi will be immediately consumed. That way, we don't have to worry about either of you becoming evil once we return to the temple."

They both nod in understanding. Raimundo slipped the ring of the Yang Yo-Yo on and watched as Omi settled into his meditative position, balancing on his head. When the dots on his head started to glow, it was the confirmation Raimundo needed to know Omi had entered his meditative state. Clay grabbed hold of Omi in one hand, and both of them popped the lids and tilted the currently empty bottles to their mouths.

Raimundo cast the Yang Yo-Yo, calling out its name, and leading the three of them back into the normal world.

.o

When they returned home, Dojo asked what was wrong with the little guy, and Raimundo explained the situation. "And so he entered a meditative state, like Fung did."

At the mention of his name, Master Fung appeared behind Raimundo and cleared his throat, Raimundo startling. "Woah, good timing."

"If you were unable to locate Omi's Chi bottle, but able to find your own, it is possible that Omi's Chi bottle is in fact, not in in the Ying Yang World at all."

.o

Chase did not sleep that night. He sits on his throne, his eyes trained on Omi's bottle. The moment that Omi leaves the Ying Yang World, that bottle will be filled.

He feels a minute shift in the air—the Ying Yang World has been opened. He tenses in anticipation. The minutes go by, but they drag on like hours. Impatience wasn't something that came easily to an immortal being who'd been alive for more than a millennium, but at times like these, sometimes it got to him.

And then the same shift happens again. Surely enough, the bottle fills up.


	5. Chapter 5

Kimiko woke up to find that she was human once again. She didn't understand the logic behind Chase transforming her back into her tiger form as part of the punishment, but then again, she didn't really know him to begin with. Why wonder how he thinks now?

The berths around her were empty; it wasn't natural for her kitchen mates to leave to their duties without at least waking her up first.

She stepped out of the room after preparing herself for kitchen duties, when a lioness stopped in front of her. The lioness swiftly transformed, and gave orders from Chase that had her cleaning the stairs at the front-most portion of the citadel. Kimiko asked about her work in the kitchen, and the lioness responded that Chase dismissed those duties for today.

Kimiko shrugged and turned, heading toward the entrance. On the way there, she could hear Chase's voice echoing in the hallways. She ended up catching a glimpse of the large court that made up is training room, to see hundreds of feline warriors joined together, all listening intently to their leader, who stood on top of the ledge circling around the room.

"My fellow warriors, it would be wise of you to keep your defenses up," Chase's words became more distinct, "Our old _friend_, Hannibal Bean, has acquired the Tenchi Render, and I suspect that he is planning an attack against us as we speak, as our forces are smaller than normal during this time. If it is not us, then it will be the Xiaolin monks that he will aim for. However, you must be vigilant. If he attacks, you must be ready."

His voice faded away as she moved further away from the training room.

She reached the main room of the citadel that one would see when entering for the first time. The beautiful fountains and pillars that made up the majority of Chase's lair looked spotless, and Kimiko wondered why it needed to be cleaned in the first place. Then again, she and the other Dragons used to clean the temple of dirt that couldn't be seen, under Master Fung's command. This type of labour would be nothing.

The bucket and sponge were already sitting at the top of one set of stairs, waiting for her. She would have preferred a mop to a sponge, considering the sheer size of this place, but with no one around to complain to aside from felines she didn't know, she huffed, grabbing the sponge and dunking it into the water. This would be a long day of work.

.o

True to Chase's suspicions, Hannibal did end up attacking his lair.

Kimiko was in the middle of scrubbing built-up calcium deposits off of the main pool of water at the front when there was a loud noise from outside. Not even a minute later did Kimiko see quite a few felines and warriors alike emerging from all points in the room, all with a single destination: outside.

Chase had already been alerted of Hannibal's league of monsters—specifically, enemies made from the ground-from his two main patrols, and once Hannibal struck the first blow, Chase ordered his male warriors to attack, since the females were currently incapacitated by the heat.

Creatures made from rock and wood wouldn't be particularly formidable, but with great numbers, there would be no telling how this battle could end up, how many casualties Chase's warriors would suffer.

Once Kimiko deduced that they were moving out to battle, she dropped her task of cleaning the area. She made herself scarce, letting the fleet of men move past her.

When the halls were nearly empty, she considered this a great time to try to escape. Noticeably, there were no stragglers to catch her making her way toward the opening, which was a bit odd considering that they should have been on the alert if one of Hannibal's lackeys managed to breach the lair.

The corridor leading out of the lair was completely empty, but once she reached the lair's mouth, she found out why.

Around three-quarters of Chase's men were out here, fighting an army they were outnumbered to. For every rock creatures tossed off of the lair's cliff, two more sprung up from the side. The warriors fighting had no trouble chopping these monsters in half, but if they didn't break down the rock monsters enough, the creatures would have enough body left to pull themselves back together as if no damage had been done.

Kimiko clung to the rock wall, scooting away from the action and out of view. She looked down below, the fog pretty thick, but she was still able to see the faint outline of trees within the Jungle of Neither Here Nor There. She found her options for truly escaping this cliff pretty limited. Her best option would be to try and work her way down from the side of the mountain. The monsters scaling its walls would be pretty hard to avoid, though…

A hand on her shoulder spooked her. She whirled around to find herself face to face with Chase Young, who did not look happy _at all_.

"You shouldn't be out here," he snarled, his grip on her shoulder tightening. "If Hannibal Bean got a hold of you—"

Something slammed into the side of the ex-Xiaolin, tossing him out of Kimiko's view.

Speaking of the devil, Hannibal Bean himself stood before her, a malicious grin splitting across his face.

"So the rumours were true. Chase finally got himself a Xiaolin Dragon," the fruit laughed, as though the idea of this was truly amusing. "Oh, but I'm sure you don't want to be locked up here? Alone, without your friends?"

Kimiko wasn't sure where Hannibal was going with this, and his front-forward tactic had her immediately on guard. She knew how powerful Hannibal's manipulation tactics were, and she wasn't about to let him play word games with her. "Get away from me before I roast you and feed you to Chase's cats, like a proper bean should!"

"Now now there, no need for such negativity. I'm merely here to help you try to escape." His accent only irritated her more.

"And why would you try to help me?" Kimiko already knew the answer—Hannibal wanted her on his side, because any opposition as strong as a Xiaolin Dragon against Chase Young was more than a good reason.

"Because I—just one second. Tenchi Render!" A giant sheet of rock appeared next to Hannibal, gripping Chase and a stray feline warrior in a strong iron clad hold and smashing them both into the ground. The giant bean cackled as the rock slab dug harder into the ground.

"Because I can help you get back to your little temple, no strings attached. All you'd have to do is help me with a little issue I have." One of his giant tentacles slammed at the ground where Chase had been smashed into, but when the dust cleared, the dragon himself was nowhere to be found. It was obvious what problem Hannibal was referring to.

"As if I'd ever team up with you!" Hannibal had to be out of his mind if he thought he'd be able to persuade her into joining with him, even to escape. Hannibal was more dangerous than Chase, and more unpredictable. Chase was known to keep his word, but she had seen enough of Hannibal to know he could twist his words into a lifelong contract she would never be able to break from. "Bug off!

"And if you think you're going to be able to take Chase down with this pathetic rock aramy, you've got another thing coming." Hannibal may have been able to change Chase, but Hannibal had nothing to try to sway her with to the side of evil for even a second.

"And how exactly are you planning on stopping me, Hannibal Roy Bean?" Oh, his laugh was bone-chilling, sure, but he would regret underestimating her power.

Kimiko grinned. This was where the playing field would turn in her favour. "You're forgetting that we're near a volcano." She paused only to savour that momentarily confused look on Hannibal's face. "And that I'm the Dragon of Fire."

It was all too sweet when his face dropped in realization, yellow eyes burning.

On the path to becoming the master of her element, Kimiko had gone through rigorous training to learn to control more solid forms of fire—plasma to a basic extent, since that was a whole other world of complex, but for the most part, lava. Finding an active volcano that she could train at daily wasn't the issue; it was one of the most draining techniques, and it took more than half a year to finally develop that skill into something she could use at will. It was also a technique that rendered her vulnerable to attack or distraction, since she had to _focus_.

She stood, her mind trained on one goal, blocking out the battle going on around her. She even had to block out Hannibal Bean, the most dangerous threat in their known universe, for a brief moment in time. She only needed a moment to concentrate.

The ground shook, hot steam bellowing from within the cracks of the cliff. The battle soon drew to a standstill when enemy and ally alike could no longer stand straight from the quakes. Kimiko could feel the heat rising, the volcano's lava around Chase's lair disturbed by her presence. The lava itself wouldn't touch Chase's lair for as long as she commanded it (and because Chase had designed it to prevent major damage).

And then, a deafening boom signaled the eruption of the small volcano.

Even before lava began spilling out, giant chunks of rocks shot out, spraying the field and injuring without prejudice, both friend and foe.

Chase thought on his feet from across the battlefield, yelling for his soldiers to retreat inside to avoid any further injury.

Hannibal himself glared at Kimiko, gritting his gnarled teeth and seething in frustration. He used the Moby Morpher to shrink to his normal bean self, and calling upon his transportation, Ying-Ying, to carry him from this battle scene, lest he be crushed by molten rocks. Kimiko herself quickly slid back into the fortress, in between the male soldiers.

Hannibal didn't bother sending his nature-made warriors back where they came from; they would be dealt with soon enough from the lava bubbling down (Kimiko never learned how to quell a volcano after it'd begun, much like one cannot stop an elephant from charging). Hannibal would find another chance to utilize the Tenchi Render—he'd make sure of it. After all, its power was what brought down the Xiaolin Temple before Sibini rose in power a thousand years ago.

.o

Chase never mentioned anything to Kimiko about her actions after that. She tentatively returned to her duties as if nothing had happened, preparing the meals with her kitchen staff, albeit a bit more slowly, as their heat made it nearly impossible to focus on cooking. She didn't continue cleaning the lair. Chase Young didn't show any signs of an objection.

But she noticed he hadn't appeared at dinner that night. And by him not appearing, that meant no Lao Mang Lone soup being carried by anyone to his quarters. She suspected it could just be because his injuries during the fight were more than he'd be willing to show his own warriors (after all, being slammed into several feet of solid rock could not have done his body any good)? Many of the cat warriors were missing from their tables as well, the infirmary having been filled with injuries ranging from deep wounds to multiple fractured and broken bones.

Females not in heat could be seen carrying out dinner down the same hallway for those wounded warriors. Those who'd gotten lucky with just some scrapes and bruises chattered noisily amongst themselves about their most recent battle.

.o

The Lao Mang Lone soup wasn't present at breakfast the following morning. Or dinner, for that matter.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note**: This chapter contains unnecessary smut right off the bat. And necessary plot afterward.

.o

"I don't understand. Why can't we just send Omi back into the Ying Yang World and have him come out on the other side good again?"

The two Dragons were centered in the meditation hall with Master Fung and Dojo to suggest a way of reverting all of the evil that had been done these past few weeks.

Master Fung responded, "With the rest of his Chi in the hands of Chase Young—outside of the Ying Yang World—Omi passing through the Ying Yang World once more will not restore his inner good. Chi can escape the Ying Yang World with the user if the user's Chi bottle is outside of the Ying Yang World, but in order to restore Chi to the user while in the Ying Yang World, the Chi bottle must be located in the Ying Yang World as well."

"Otherwise you're stuck with the old fashioned method of getting them to drink their own Chi. Or shovin' it into their head. Like with what you guys did when Omi became all bad the first time around," Dojo added in.

"So you're saying that we have to get Omi's Chi back from Chase Young ourselves?" Clay clarified worriedly, scratching his chin in thought. "The odds of us winnin' seem mighty low considerin' there's only two of us now."

.o

"You reek of females," Chase hissed.

The lion bowed his head in apology. He was one of the lions who'd damaged their sense of smell in battle, and was no longer affected by the heat of the many women residing in Chase's domain. Which is why the scent of females tended to linger on him whenever he passed by them.

The lion announced that someone was there to see them, and backed away to have Kimiko replace him.

Chase kept a voice of indifference. "What do you want?"

Kimiko blinked, and then started. "So, I noticed the albino guy hasn't been bringing your soup at all when we were eating yesterday and today, so I brought some of that uh, Lao Mang Lone stuff that you have to eat." She presented the iconic dragon container. She didn't make it—she was forbidden from making it—the eldest kitchen servant did, but for once she was entrusted to bring it to him.

"I am not interested in it at the moment," and his position did not give away the craving inside of him for the Lao Mang Lone soup. Yes, he _did_ need it, but his irritation over Kimiko's actions had left him unsettled. "Leave at once."

Kimiko would be having none of it. Her fiery personality got the better of her and her tongue. "You know, you could be a little less rude about this stuff." She even had the gull to stomp up to him. "You know, I'd really have a normal headed Chase around than an insane dragon, so eat the soup!"

Chase wasn't exactly any less level-headed when he was a dragon; it's just that his instincts tend to overrule his better judgment at times. But for the most part, he was in complete control.

Chase continued to look away, head on his fist, staring at a scroll that contained less than interesting text at the moment. Inside, the urge to remain calm took a step back to primal desires as the scent of Kimiko's heat slowly drove him insane. "You aren't in any position to be speaking to me like that."

"What? Are you acting like this because I basically saved your ass from Hannibal Bean?" She didn't know whether or not she indirectly hurt Chase's pride by intervening at the battle scene with her element of fire, but she might as well infer it, because to her, it seemed to be the case. He could have kept making more of those earth things if I was seeing things correctly."

Chase looked directly at Kimiko. "You tried to escape."

His stare caused Kimiko to falter, and it immediately put her at unease. Chase disregarded the scroll, standing up and moving from around his desk. His sudden increase in height made Kimiko less confident about her actions than before,

"Do you have any idea of the danger you'd have placed us in if that bean had convinced you to follow his plans?"

He was approaching her at a dangerous rate, and before she knew it, the area to avoid him in had suddenly vanished, and her back was against the wall.

"You do realise that you will be a target of his to convert to the Heylin side, now that he sees that I have a Dragon. He doesn't like when I have things that he can't have." Chase smirked a bit at that, taking a bit of pleasure out of that small fact, having what Hannibal desired. However, that fact alone made him an even bigger target of Hannibal's.

"He will do anything to assure that that happens, all on the one tiny promise that you will be freed from me." He was too close now. Kimiko could smell the natural musk of dragon and man combined into one; she wasn't sure if that was the work of her feline form that increased her sensitivity to scents, but it was definitely overpowering.

Fear was caught in her eyes, but she didn't let that hold back her tongue. "As if there's much worse than being trapped in this feline hell."

Chase scoffed. "Oh, it'd be much worse. Your friends would never forgive you for such betrayal. You'd never be able to erase the fact that you, of your own free will, actively participated in Hannibal's plans. Look at what working with me did to Omi."

Omi still found himself against the forces of evil, but whenever an event involved Chase Young, Omi's ability to collect himself in the situation seemed to slow down considerably. He had utmost respect for the Heylin Warrior, considering how he had worked together with the side of good in the greater interest of the world itself. Now, Omi hesitated when fighting against Chase, wondering if this was truly for the best, or if Omi was acting upon his own self-interest.

Cooperating with the Heylin side could really damage your confidence.

At these words, Kimiko bit her lip and looked away, all too aware of the throbbing between her legs right now. At this point, the worst of the heat had passed, but it was still pretty strong. Him being this close did not help calm her down.

"I didn't want that. That's why I activated the volcano to scare him off." Now would be a _really_ good time for that warmth to go away.

"He could have tricked you into drinking the Lao Mang Lone soup in some form, claiming your soul and preventing you from ever wishing to return to the Xiaolin ways." As he'd done to Chase. Chase didn't have any particular issue with more joining the ranks of the Heylin side, but he had at least the tiniest bit of respect for the Xiaolin Dragons, which he'd fought for years. Being tricked into the path of evil did not make a truly evil being.

Everything she said, he seemed to have a counter for it. It looked less and less like she'd been helping, and more and more like she'd actually done something _wrong_. But he was the _enemy_. Her actions were only justified by that.

It didn't help that she was attracted to him—physically. There was nothing appealing about his position in the war, or his personality, she reminded herself. The body wants what the body wants, and she was no exception from being willed by lust for another person.

"Chase, I…" she trailed off. She didn't want him to talk anymore about the possibilities that could have happened. Those thoughts upset her, and yelling at him at this proximity would most likely result in injury, so she did the next best thing her hormone-riddled mind could think of. Before she knew it, she'd leaned forward enough to encompass Chase's lips with her own.

It wasn't her, she assured herself. It was her heat that compelled her to do this. In any other scenario, she wouldn't think about doing this.

He didn't resist the chance to push the kiss further than its tentative start, teeth chewing on Kimiko's lips, a hand balancing against the wall to hold himself over her as her legs grew weaker, bringing her to the floor.

She made an effort to keep a grip on his arms, even as one encompassed her back; she could feel his fingers tracing through the hair at the base of her neck, and in that moment, it felt great.

"It burns," she whispered, her legs squeezing more tightly together. He pulled back, planting kisses down her chin and onto her neck, the hand that had braced against the wall now moving to trace down her arm as he slid down onto his knees in front of her.

"It appears even the Dragon of Fire is not resistant to certain types of heat."

Her cheeks flushed at that comment, wanting to hit him for that but instead letting out something –did she really make that noise just now?! The noises coming out of her were embarrassing, certainly not sounds that should be drawn from the hand of a Heylin enemy.

Right now, however, Heylin and Xiaolin alike were forgotten in favour of a neutral position in order for her to satisfy these urges.

His fingers were feeling her curves, past her hips to glide across her lengthy legs, serving well to make her draw Chase closer to her. And surprisingly, he allowed her to pull him. He could have easily stayed put, but the fact that he let her control him, a powerful dragon, in some way was all she needed to drop her hesitation—to lose herself to the heat.

Using his arms as leverage, she pulled herself into Chase's lap. He grunted, curious, hands tracing underneath her Xiaolin robes, over the taut skin of her nipples, pressing his thumbs into them gently. She moaned and moved her hips in return, grinding against his groin.

The intimacy of their positions was clear; she found herself on top of him, and again, she appreciated the dominance and power that came with this situation. Her leggings had been stripped, leaving her with only the iconic red robe to cloak her body.

Chase had discovered moments into this erotic play that the tiger stripes from Kimiko's acquired tiger form were still faintly visible on her skin. He was fascinated with them, fingers often tracing them as they continued.

He rolled her over, dry-rutting between her thighs. At first, she thought it was because he was teasing her, but there was a look on his face that looked out of place.

"Chase," she whined. His actions were only serving to make the burning unbearable, and if he wouldn't do something soon, she'd end up finishing herself off in front of him.

"I… can't," he managed to get out between heavy breaths, his hair draped and clinging to his sweaty face. "I'll lose control. I can barely hang on now."

But his words went unheeded, and Kimiko gyrated her hips into Chase's hardened length.

"Please, Chase?" she tried again, actually managing to slip into position, head at her opening.

"K-kimiko—" It sounded harsh, choked, and the hand that had been resting on her arm tightened, painfully so. Kimiko saw the human before her disappear as the roiling scales of a dragon shifted into gear. The feline pheromones were too much for his primal beast to handle inside. Mid transformation, he'd buried himself into her, distracting her from himself and the heat. The pleasure was intense, even as his member shifted into something much larger when the transformation had ended. The thrusts picked up immediately, something much more primal than Kimiko'd ever expected to get herself into.

They were victims to their own biological needs, lost in the smells and the warmth surrounding them.

.o

Kimiko woke up feeling pretty sore.

She found herself curled up in one of the large cushioned chairs decorated throughout Chase's domain, a blanket draped over her form. She groaned, rolling her face into the arm of the chair, hoping to shut out the lights, but eventually it became clear that sleep would not be granted to her again. Looking around, she noticed she was still in Chase's study room (for lack of a better term). As she fully came to her sense, she could no longer feel the itch of her heat lingering in the back of her mind, surprisingly.

"You're awake." She heard a voice from the side, and she turned to see Chase hovering over what looked like ancient black parchment scrolls with golden ink spelling out hanzi.

She wasn't sure what she expected afterward. He didn't seem the type to cuddle, if he not being next to her was any indication.

"Did you…?" she trailed off, not sure what to say in this sort of situation.

Her clothes had been replaced with clean ones, and she noticed that there was a distinct smell to her, one that was associated with the showers in his lair. Did he clean her, or did he get someone else to do it…?

"It would be best not to discuss this with anyone. We were both driven to do what we did due to forces beyond our control." Not to mention that if word got out to evil beyond his dominion, one would misconstrue Kimiko as a romantic interest and end up trying to use that against him.

She wanted to say something else, that it was wrong in some way—it irked her that Chase would brush something like this off—but instead, she said, "Okay."

In a way, she felt used, but at the same time, it was _her_ that had used him in order to quell that insufferable heat. Xiaolin and Heylin did not share a relationship that would cause them conflict on the battlefield. If she thought about it too hard, she might end up trying to make what happened between them, something more. It felt better to latch onto the premise that he was the toy and not her.

She didn't feel she was ready for a commitment with great evil.

Kimiko didn't make it that far onto her kitchen mates' floor that early morning before one of them called her out.

"So Kimiko, where've you been? You missed out on quite a story Beebi was telling last night." It was Chiyin that spoke.

"I was going to try to talk some sense into your lord and savior Chase," Kimiko rolled her eyes, heart beating a little faster at the possibility of someone knowing what transpired. "He hasn't been eating in like, days."

"I dunno Kimiko, I think I heard a lot more than just sense talking going down there during my patrol," Chiyin scratched her chin contemplatively, though every feline on that floor had a pretty good idea of what had happened.

"No one just goes in there overnight without _something_ suspicious happening to them," Tak responded, almost eerily.

"What, you mean he's done this to other people as well?" Kimiko asked, astounded.

"Well, no," Chiyin replied sheepishly. "It's kind of just an ongoing 'fantasy'," she said with air quotes. "But now we know for sure that you were getting it pretty sweet from Chase!"

"Oh my god," Kimiko buried her head into her hands while the others made a ruckus.

"So does this mean you're Chase's lover now?" One of them teased, causing a few of the other roommates to giggle.

"What?! No, no, no!" If Kimiko could blush any harder than she was now…

"When I was there, the heat thing was too overwhelming. It's like I couldn't control myself!" There was a bit of fear lingering in those words. How could a primal instinct like that be strong enough to overpower her senses so easily? "I don't understand how you all manage to do it in the kitchen, because it was basically tearing me apart."

Tanaka placed a hand on Kimiko's shoulder. "Well, sweety, we've had hundreds of years to harness that desire into just brutal labour. We turn it into aggressiveness in the kitchen. Haven't you noticed?"

Now that they mentioned it, she remembered when they chopped meat, blood tended to fly off of the counters that week.

"You don't need to explain yourself to us. We weren't attacking you for anything you've done with Chase. We were just poking fun at you," she reassured.

"And to be honest, I wouldn't mind sharing a bed with Chase any day. Man, did you luck out big time."

"It's kind of weird," Kimiko mentioned. "I don't feel the heat nagging at me anymore. Like, it's completely gone."

"That's what happens," Beebi piped up. "Once you get some sweet loving, it goes away. It's not like a regular cat heat where it keeps on going until your body decides it's over."

Kimiko was surprised. "So all you really have to do is rub one out?"

"Eh, the entirety of it is more complicated than that, but it's really not something we should explain. Though orgasms do seem to help quell it."

In the back of her mind, Kimiko prayed this wouldn't make interactions between her and Chase any more awkward.

.o

The Wundin Staff could disrupt the equilibrium of one's enemies, making it hard to walk straight for short periods of time.

With its recent activation came the unceremonious process of trying to locate it. Dojo told Raimundo and Clay there was no need for them to move on out, as he'd sensed that it was located somewhere near the temple itself. Omi's resurrection from meditation would have to wait until then.

"Dojo, you've been leading us on the same path three times now," Raimundo remarked. "That's the same bark-stripped tree we saw twenty minutes ago." The bark had been stripped accidentally when Raimundo'd been practicing new ways to control his elemental wind.

"I'm sorry guys, but whenever I seem to get near it, my Dojo senses start screwing up and leading me in a different direction!" It only made sense. After all, this _was_ the equilibrium-disrupting Shen Gong Wu.

The sound of Jack's helipack could be heard as they meandered through the temple grounds, statues of previous Masters lining the path they walked. However, Jack was of little concern yet.

"Maybe if you went against yer instincts and went in the opposite direction when yer senses start getting' buggy, we can find the Shen Gong Wu after all?" Clay suggested, tilting his hat under the beating sun.

It turned out that the Wundin Staff was located in between the hands of one of the statues near the end of the garden. Dojo was the first to point it out; it blended in well with the statue.

Clay nodded, and seeing as he was closest to the statue's position, ran toward it. Jack Spicer was annoyingly close, and Clay sighed knowing that Spicer would end up challenging him to a showdown.

He managed to grab the lower half of the staff, and Jack inevitably reached for the top, which had a simple sphere decorated with geometric shapes. What they didn't expect was for a third hand to extend, grabbing the middle of the staff. Chase Young stepped out from behind the statue, still keeping a grip on the Wundin Staff. It glowed in anticipation of what was to come.

"Spicer, and Chase," Clay spoke Chase's name with venom to it, "I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown."

Jack was determined not to let his fanboy tendencies to get the best of him, and he nodded, as did Chase. "I wager my Third-Arm Sash against your Fist of Tebigong and Chase's…?" he looked at Chase.

"I'll wager my Array of Ra's Rays," Chase prompted.

"The game is find the difference. First one to find the real Wundin Staff wins," Jack offered.

"I accept your challenge," Chase acknowledged.

"Same here," Clay nodded.

The ubiquitous _Xiaolin Showdown_ followed with the ground leaving their feet and forcing them to grab onto iron rods that shot out of the ground and extended endlessly into the sky above. There were poles that hovered as well, and were rather short and looked strikingly similar to the Wundin Staff, adding to the rather barcode-esque environment they found themselves in. Gone was the green of the peaceful Xiaolin temple, replaced by a grey fog that disguised how far down the ground was from where they hung now.

Raimundo hung off of one of the rods that had floated by, immediately deciding this was one of the worst ways the Showdown decided to sit spectators.

It would be a test of who would find the staff first in this game.

"_Gong Yi Tempai!_"

The three of them scattered, Jack lingering long enough on his starting pole to discover that the rod began to melt on his hands. Startled, he jumped toward another one, and this time, the rod immediately began bending under his weight. He activated his helipack to fly, but a floating rod he hadn't noticed before, got caught in the blades of the helipack. Since it was a melting one, it quickly coated the blades and effectively stopped it from working.

Jack was quickly falling. "Third-Arm Sash!" The sash's arm quickly grabbed an adjacent bar, but it was one that broke immediately instead of melting, and Jack, having not ascended early enough onto higher bars, dropped out of sight with no further bars to grab. His screams echoed through the wall-less void.

The two other competitors found this out soon, too. Clay found a hard time maneuvering through the bars considering his weight. His Wu was useless here, as the goo would still slip through the Fist of Tebigong. Chase, on the other hand, seemed to have no issue moving quickly through the forest of staffs, eventually scaling up the rods out of Clay's sight.

A few minutes into the showdown, Clay did spot the Wundin Staff. It was surrounded between bars that came so closely together, one would have to seriously concentrate to avoid hitting the bars.

Clay reached for it, but his generously thick arms rubbed against the bars surrounding it as he struggled to grab the Wundin Staff. In his haste, his carelessness led the rods to melt onto his arms, effectively finding himself stuck.

His luck ran out when the rod he'd been hanging on snapped, taking a few seconds longer to break than previous ones. That one rod let him drop into the dense fog above with two bars stuck to his arm, the last thing him seeing being Chase swooping to grab the Wundin Staff through the area the two bars had originally been positioned at.

The showdown had ended. The terrain was back to normal, and a defeated Clay tilted his hat down in shame while Jack scowled, flying away with his helipack, which had reverted to normal after the showdown stopped.

Chase, however, did not leave immediately. After tossing aside the Third-Arm Sash (to which the Xiaolin monks gawked at), he held out the Wundin Staff in one hand, and placed the Array of Ra's Rays on top of the Wundin Staff. The Array of Ra's Rays was a Shen Gong Wu that illuminated an area up to a mile. Its appearance consisted of a golden bird, similar to a falcon, with a wide crest and a silver neck plate encompassing its neck.

"Chase, you got your Wu. You better leave or we'll give you a royal asskicking," Raimundo warned, moving into a defensive stance.

The threat went ignored, Chase turning to face them directly. He held out the Wundin Staff, shouting its name of both it and the Array of Ra's Rays, and then tapping the staff's end on the ground. The two Shen Gong Wu glowed, emitting invisible pulses similar to the vibrations of an earthquake. It travelled through the ground, passing underneath both Raimundo and Clay, who both fell to the Wundin Staff's power. The ground didn't shake, but it certainly felt like it did to those who were struck by it.

The pulses didn't stop there. They travelled further, into the walls of the Xiaolin temple. Normally, the Wundin Staff only affected targets within short distances, but combined with the Array of Ra's Rays, it would allow the user to spread the power of the Wundin Staff to much greater lengths, close to a mile. This was due to how broad the Array of Ra's Ray's power extended to.

With this combination, normally it would not be a very dangerous Shen Gong Wu, but in these circumstances, it spelled out something much worse.

The waves of equilibrium-disruption passed easily through the temple walls, passing under Master Fung and the other elder monks, rendering them incapable of walking. It traveled further inward, into the room that Omi was held in.

The waves passed under the meditating monk.

Dojo, who'd been wrapped around Raimundo's neck, suddenly got cold chills and let out an awkward noise.

"Dojo, dude, what's up?" Raimundo asked while struggling to pull himself onto his feet with the Wundin Staff's power still in effect.

The green dragon was bug eyed.

"That feeling… I know that feeling."

The wind picked up, and Chase's sinister laugh marked the darkening of the skies. The ground actually trembled this time, signaling the end of the Wundin Staff's effects.

"It was that time w-w-w-when…"

"Spit it out Dojo!"

"When Heylin Omi had awakened."

Over the roar of the ground shaking, one could hear Dojo's terrified screaming.

.o

**Author's Note: **I admit I only wrote this story because I wanted Dragon!Chase smut. But now that I actually reached this part, I'm like 'nah' because there's actual plot now. So it's not as detailed as I wanted it to be. Just my luck. Curse you hormones.


	7. Chapter 7

Hannibal observed the events going on while perched on Ying-Ying in a tree overlooking one of the Xiaolin temple's buildings. He knew if Chase reached a newly-awakened Heylin Omi before he did, there would be no doubt that his chance to beat Chase would be lost with the monk on his side.

"Ying-Ying, why don't we give our little friend a visit?" The red and black bird spread its wings and circled around the building they were so close to, scanning for an open passage inside, finding one quickly as the earth settled.

It was not long before they found the monk, dazed but well on his way to gathering his wits. Hannibal jumped off of Ying-Ying, who perched on the rafts above to watch the scene play out, and he landed next to Omi's doorway. Quietly, he used the Moby Morpher, and within seconds, no longer did a bean stand there, but the revered form of Chase Young himself.

Hannibal could hear footsteps, and soon the turned monk was in front of him. The small warrior looked surprised, but then pleased.

"Chase Young, we meet again."

Omi no longer outwardly showed the compulsion—the obsession—to fight. In fact, one would assume that he was still Xiaolin based on his calm disposition, if not for the rotated grid of dots on his head and the fact that he was speaking with Chase Young in any tone beyond cautious.

"Yes, young monk, and I have awakened you to your true potential once more." Omi displayed much respect for Chase Young; it would be much easier to influence Omi's actions as someone he'd once worked together with.

"Come, there is much evil we must do."

.o

"I knew he was tryin' to pull the same trick again!" Clay shouted, stomping his foot on the ground and twisting his hat in frustration.

If Omi had broken from the meditation, there was no telling what could happen.

"You go check on Omi, I'll hold off Chase!" Raimundo directed to Clay, proceeding to face Chase with his standard battle stance. The Texan nodded before taking off toward the temple.

Raimundo was more adept in the use of his fighting applications after years of practice—mainly to protect himself and the others against Chase Young. Chase was a master of Tai Chi Chuan, and thus to protect against a master of an art, one must become a master of said art. Now, Raimundo couldn't brag about being a _master_ of it, as Chase Young had millennia of training against him, but he was more prepared for combat.

And that's what would have to do to save himself and the others right now.

.o

The hallways of the temple were eerily silent, which shouldn't have been the case if something had happened to Omi. If Dojo's scared prattling was correct, Omi was supposed to be awake, but where was he?

A quick glance into his room did confirm he was no longer here. Clay could only assume the worst.

.o

Chase hadn't been trying hard, but was surprised to see how well Raimundo had been holding up. Raimundo had managed to pull a "Grasping Sparrow's Tail" numerous times. He could see why Raimundo chose to fight against him and not Clay; Raimundo's speed was great to combat the tactics that Chase used. But even those tactics couldn't save him from the inevitable defeat, and Chase was posed above him, ready to deliver the finishing move.

"I can't find Omi anywhere!" Clay called out to Raimundo. The sudden interruption gave a small but effective window for Raimundo to lock his legs around Chase's torso and throw him a few feet away from him.

"What? He can't have just disappeared!" Raimundo grunted as he scrambled to get up, preparing for the next attack. However, Chase did not proceed, rather, staring at Clay instead.

"I checked every room in the temple, n' couldn't find him."

Upon hearing this news, Chase narrowed his eyes. The young Dragon of Water would not simply leave the grounds without investigating the situation to find out what had caused his awakening. Something didn't feel right here.

If he didn't wander out onto the ground on which they fought, then someone must have influenced their decision to leave without anyone noticing. He gritted his teeth as he could only think of one person that had the audacity to throw off his plans like this.

With that, he made a silent but disturbed retreat, with nothing but irritated thoughts toward his enemy, Hannibal Roy Bean.

.o

Omi had never seen this terrain they were walking through. It had been quite a distance Chase Young was leading him, which was curious, considering he had the power of teleportation. Why couldn't he have just teleported them to wherever he was taking him to?

It wasn't as desolate as the Land of Nowhere—in fact, it was quite the opposite. While the ground remained bareboned and occasionally littered with the bones of a dead animal or person, the vegetation around them flourished in a sea of greens and purples, which was most unusual to Omi, considering the fact that flowers did not normally blossom green, and purples were generally considered a rare colour in nature. Flowers also didn't glow, much less _pulse _as they glowed. That aside, it was still a mystical sight to behold.

"Why are we not going to your lair?" Omi finally asked the question. He would've assumed Chase Young wanted him training with him and his warriors, as Omi once did as a Heylin warrior before.

"Because I wanted to introduce you to a world I think suits you."

Heylin magic was ever present in the environment they were approaching. There was no noticeable difference in terms of appearance; the Heylin magic had spread far underground, reaching even the most innocent and untainted of roots and corrupting them. However, the ground seemed to have an imperceptible line on the visual spectrum, but it could be felt by those who crossed it.

When Omi crossed that line between normal ground and Heylin soot, he stared down at his feet in wonder. "Most peculiar, I am feeling even stronger than before, and I didn't think that was possible!"

"That's because we are in Heylin territory. It has spawned millions of years of pure evil. Now you have the pleasure of feeling its power." This land was never before touched by Xiaolin kind, one that thrived off of the ancient rooted evil flowing through the veins of the land.

Chase Young pulled out the Tenchi Render and activated it, and immediately countless solid monsters rose from the dry soil, formed of both the weeds and flowers, and jagged rocks from the earth. These warriors did not consist of the basic rock elements that had been seen during the raid against Chase. These were imbued with Heylin magic, and were glowing green from every possible seam. If there were any comparison, one could say they were similar to the beasts Wuya had used many years ago when she was at the height of her power.

"These creatures should be great practice for the battle ahead, young Omi. They contain powers rivaling that of your own, so do not take them lightly."

Despite Omi having grown out of his overactive tendencies in the past on the Heylin side, he still couldn't resist a battle when he saw it. He ignored the fact that he'd taken down his team mates in the past as Heylin, and that he probably could do so now, too. Right now, the prospect of being able to fight what Chase claimed to be a worthy opponent in strength would be more satisfying, considering how trained the Heylin dragon himself was.

Omi bowed. "I will do my best to destroy them. And then can we fight the others?" By the others, he meant his fellow Dragons. He couldn't help but let slip a little bit of that eccentric urge to fight.

"Yes, there will be plenty of time to fight those who get in your way." A smirk crept onto Hannibal's lips as he tossed the Tenchi Render over to Omi, who caught it smoothly from the air.

"Knock yourself out. I have evil business to attend to." Hannibal disappeared into the darkness of the Heylin-laden earth, leaving Omi to fight monsters that could rival Wuya's strength, and reap even more destruction if they actually had sentience.

.o

Hannibal approached Chase's lair, staring up at the towering cliff on which it rested. He and his chaperone, Ying-Ying, sat in the trees, their plan waiting to be set into motion. They'd observed the daily routines of the guardian cats that made their rounds below his lair, what paths they took as they scanned for any possible threat.

Today, Washa was put on guard duty, and was carefully making his way down the side of the cliff, his descent made easier by his rough paws and sturdy body. A snow leopard was made for climbing rocky mountains, so this would be no issue for him. He'd been assigned the northeast region of the Land of Nowhere, an area that tended to grow clusters of dead trees. It didn't make sense as to why the trees would _grow _already dead, but then again, not much did in the Land of Nowhere.

Once he reached the base of the cliff, he began padding off towards said region, but as he passed one of the dead trees, there was a sudden shift his control; as though he was losing his willpower, the ability to think consciously. It was as though he could see and hear and move, but it wasn't of his control.

Yes, he could see something, some small bean hopping in front of him holding a weird artifact in its hands. Did beans even have hands? No, they didn't. Maybe he was hallucinating, beans definitely didn't have hands.

Washa could hear the bean talking. He had to be sick, beans don't talk. But whatever the bean was saying, for some reason, he felt like he had to do it. His self-control was beyond himself, he found himself walking back toward Chase's lair. Yes, this seemed appropriate. His mind was telling him to go into Chase's lair and to retrieve something. What did the bean call it? He wasn't sure, but his brain knew what it was, knew what the object looked like. Yes, he would retrieve it.

Hannibal chuckled as he watched the snow leopard walk in the opposite direction. With the Zing Zom-Bone (that Wuya had stolen when she was still partnered up with him), he would get one of Chase's own lackeys to do all the dirty work for him.

.o

Kimiko had left the kitchen to see if Rei had finished helping out with the new food delivery. It was taking longer than normal for her to return with the baskets carrying the meats, fruits, and vegetables among other things, for the kitchen.

She moved toward the storage facilities where they were normally delivered from the other warriors, but on her way, she noticed that Washa was lurking through the halls, almost mindlessly in his gait. She watched him walk until he'd entered a room she'd been forbidden access into. Curiously, she crept over to the door after a minute, only to freeze when Washa's head peaked out from it.

Kimiko backed away, about to go off minding her own business when she noticed something gleaming from in between the feline's jaws.

Omi's Chi bottle! And it was still filled with the Chi Omi had lost coming back into the normal world.

She gasped, but Washa didn't seem to acknowledge her presence as he walked back in the direction she'd seen him coming from. She wondered what Washa's intentions were with the Chi bottle, so, abandoning her original objective to find Rei, she instead followed Washa through the long corridors of Chase's domain.

Washa reached the entrance, which caused her to halt, unsure of whether she should ignore the fact she wasn't allowed outside. Her hesitation lasted long enough to where Washa was gone when she'd finally made her decision. She took a few steps toward the door when she was stopped by Chiyin, who called her out for abandoning her duties.

"Where d'ya think you're going? This ain't time to abandon your post!"

"There was something else I needed to check up on," Kimiko replied, wishing to continue following Washa, but instead was forced to go back to kitchen work lest she receive punishment for slacking off. If Washa, someone she kind of trusted considering he was in their quarters every night, was carrying Omi's Chi, it had to be in safer hands than one of the others. Even if Washa was a devoted servant to Chase Young.

But Chase was still inside the lair as far as she knew, so there had to be an outside force at hand if Chase wasn't ordering Washa to do this. .But if she told Chase…

She figured she'd tell him this evening.

.o

Washa returned to Hannibal with Omi's Chi. Chase must not have been back yet if it were this easy to steal.

"Good kitty," Hannibal said as he swiped Omi's bottle from the cat's maw. As soon as it was safe, he delivered a bone-crushing blow with his tentacles that snapped Washa out of his zombie-induced trance, but the punch sent him soaring into the sky, straight to the entrance of Chase's lair. Hannibal had no more need for the cat; he didn't care if he broke a bone or two in the process of delivering the cat back to Chase.

He chuckled to himself, satisfied, and returned to Omi on Ying-Ying with the bottle in tow. He'd be well on his way back here, though, tomorrow.

.o

The two Dragons found themselves in the meditation hall again. It was unnerving how many times they found themselves consulting Master Fung over these things, even though they reassured themselves that they were just asking for more info. The fear of not knowing was a burden Raimundo didn't care to let others know about.

"What do we do now that Omi's all evil again?" he thought out loud?

"It will only be a matter of time before the Shiji Chi Crane activates."

"Shiji Chi Crane?"

"It allows the user to send its enemy's Chi to and from the Ying Yang World. Because Omi's good Chi is located outside of his body at the same time as his evil Chi in this world, the Shiji Chi Crane will not be able to resist making itself known."

"But Omi's Chi is stuck with Chase Young, don't you remember?" Raimundo said exasperated.

"It does not matter where the target's Chi is located. The Shiji Chi Crane's force is powerful enough to draw its target's Chi from anywhere in the world."

"Great, so all we gotta do is find that and us it on Omi before he can end up destroying the world? A sound plan to me," Raimundo says.

"I dunno… I really can't remember what happened to that Wu. Dashi was the one that hid it, and you know how when he hides a Wu, it's generally in a place you'd least expect. With a Wu like this, he definitely would've made sure no one could get to it." Dojo hummed, looking as though deep in thought.

"Great, so we may not even be able to find it. Just our luck. What do we do if we don't get it?"

It was silent for a long while.

"We could just go with our original plan before the Wundin Staff had revealed itself. Get Omi's Chi back from Chase and try to dump it back in the little guy's head," Clay suggested.

"So while we're waiting for this Shiji Chi Crane to reveal itself, we can actually try to do something instead of sitting on our butts all day." Raimundo sounded much more confident than he did just a few minutes ago.

"Still, there's only two of us," Clay noted.

"Yeah, yeah, point out the obvious, will you?" Raimundo blew his hair from out of his eyes, running his hand through it to keep it from falling again. It was often a subconscious gesture he made when he was nervous. "Look, Kimiko will still be on our side, and I'm also certain that Chase wants Hannibal gone. Or, y'know, without Omi on _his_ side. Maybe we can… set up a deal to work with Chase against Hannibal?"

Clay nodded after careful consideration. "It seems better than letting that no good varmint run around with our friend."


	8. Chapter 8

That night, after her shift in the kitchen was up, Kimiko headed off in the direction the lion had led her to previously: Chase's 'office', for lack of a better term for it. She'd notified one of the felines that she wanted to see Chase (she was restricted from wandering too far away from the eyes of any feline, after that whole Hannibal Bean incident.), and thankfully, the feline delivered her message. Inside, the warlord was occupied with his Lao Mang Long soup, as well as a new scroll on the side.

"You wished to speak with me?" Chase spoke up from across the room, lifting an eyebrow as he sipped his soup.

"Yeah, uh," she started nervously, moving into the room as the door began to shut itself. Must have been enchanted with magic. She remembered what happened last time she was alone in this room with Chase—those memories _really weren't helping_. "I saw something weird earlier today. Washa was carrying Omi's Chi bottle outside."

"Yes, I am aware of that." Chase was intrigued that Kimiko was reporting about this in the first place; he would've thought that she'd disregard an event like this, assuming that whatever one of Chase's warriors were doing was his business alone. Perhaps it was because it had to do with the Dragon of Water's Chi, and the Dragon of Fire herself was worried.

"You are?"

"Washa reported to me of the events immediately after he was attacked by a small figure. He believed it to be Hannibal, whom had placed him under some sort of trance. The specifics are unclear."

Kimiko's eyes widened. That meant that Hannibal had to have been in possession of Omi's Chi! She was right to be concerned after all.

"What I'm curious about is why you didn't come to me about this sooner?" The calmness of his voice masked any anger that may have been boiling inside of him, and his stoic face made it impossible for Kimiko to read, leaving her feeling more uneasy, and it welcomed a long silence.

The silence was only broken by a long sip of Lao Mang Lone soup. Hannibal could travel anywhere he wanted with his bird Ying-Ying, and with Omi's Heylin powers unleashed once more, the combination was a frightening prospect when it was not under Chase's control.

"Well… what's going to happen now?" Kimiko asked quietly. There was no confidence behind these words. With Omi at Hannibal's side, it might have been as bad as when Chase had taken Omi's powers for himself.

"I am not sure," Chase admitted. "What I am sure of is that Hannibal will strike again. And this time, I am uncertain if I will be strong enough to stop him, with Omi's full potential unleashed." He was evenly matched with Hannibal, as he was with Guan, but with Omi combined?

This was really bad. If Chase didn't know what to do, what could be done? To Kimiko, this may well be the true end of the world.

.o

"What a pleasant surprise," Chase drawled out, not bothering to move over when Kimiko approached from the side to see the visitors. News spread around quickly when someone was about to enter Chase's lair, and when she'd heard about a large dragon landing at the mouth of the lair, she rushed to the main room as soon as possible.

Standing at the base of the stairs was Raimundo and Clay, surrounded by a few felines who were prompted to snarl threateningly, as with most visitors.

Raimundo saw Kimiko and smiled reassuringly, sticking up his thumbs before getting to the reason why they came. "We're not here to fight you, but to form an alliance, kinda." Raimundo could feel Dojo quaking around his neck as the dragon stared wide-eyed at the felines getting too close for comfort.

"And what does this alliance entail?" Chase folded his arms. While his posture spoke of indifference, he was quite interested in hearing what the Xiaolin Dragon had to offer, considering this was the first time anyone outside of Omi had thought of propositioning himself.

"We want to work with you to get Omi back to normal." Of course.

"It was my intention to awaken Omi to his Heylin side once more." Truly, it was.

"Yeah, but I bet you didn't expect that musical fruit to take him before you," Raimundo challenged. He could see Chase's hands forming fists; the dragonlord didn't like being reminded of the situation that they all were in.

To be fair, a coalition against the Heylin bean and Omi would be most wise. In the past, the Xiaolin Warriors, even with the three of them against Omi, stood no chance against him. But with the added help of Chase and his warriors, the likelihood of them actually winning would rise exponentially.

"All we need is his Chi bottle, and then we can return the Chi to his body and everything'll be all good."

That would mean that all the work he'd done to turn Omi evil again in the first place would have gone to waste.

"I am not interested in deals that do not favour—"

He was interrupted when an explosion forced half of the wall making up the entrance to his lair, into the room they stood in. The debris didn't reach where Chase and Kimiko stood, but it forced cats and human alike away to the other side of the room to avoid getting injured. The two Xiaolin Dragons made their way up the stairs, eventually settling near where Kimiko stood, and looked onward to the rubble.

From the smoking hole entered Omi, who bore a creepy grin on his face to mark the pride he felt for displaying such power. Power that could destroy the side of a mountain.

Omi is surprised to see Clay and Raimundo already here, but even more surprised to see one Chase Young standing there as well.

"Chase Young? But I thought you were with me this whole time!"

Omi turned back to Hannibal, who grinned maniacally, using the Moby Morpher to split his appearance back to its genuine form, landing on Omi's shoulder.

"That doesn't matter now, boy. You're still on the side of evil."

Omi nodded. Evil does as evil wants. He looked over to Raimundo and Clay.

"Why are you with Chase? Have you all considered the side of evil too?"

"Not quite partner, we—" Clay began, but was stopped by Raimundo.

"Yeah Omi, we have. We're all Heylin Dragons now. On the same team." Omi was one of the most trustworthy people Raimundo'd ever met. Not to mention one of the most senseless when it came to building trust as well. It wouldn't be that hard to tell a little white lie to make Omi believe Raimundo. Even if that lie was half truthful. They _had_ come to form an alliance with Chase in the first place.

"What kind of trickery is this?" Hannibal muttered from where he sat.

"That means we don't have to fight, Omi," Raimundo said as he began to descend down the stairs, a you-can-trust-this-face grin on his mouth, and his hand extended.

"But I like to fight! Fighting is my purpose, and I'd fight you even if we were on the same side!" Omi said, though he held a smile on his face, much like the Xiaolin monk Omi would have when he sincerely believed someone. "But if you're on the Heylin side now, I don't see why we can't share our forces."

Share what forces, exactly, Raimundo didn't bother to think about. He saw Omi stretching out his own hand to shake his.

Hannibal didn't like where this was going. Sharing Omi's power with _Chase_, that double-crossing lizard? He didn't even want to consider the possibility of joining forces. However, Omi as he was wouldn't consider crossing Chase Young, as Chase had had way more face time with the monk than Hannibal himself. Gritting his teeth, he pulled out the Sphere of Yun.

"Sphere of Yun!"

Before Omi knew it, he was encased within the impenetrable sphere, and looked down at Hannibal in confusion. Raimundo himself stopped his approach, now more leery than ever.

"What is the meaning of this? I thought you were here to help me!" Omi shouted, smashing his face against the glass walls.

Hannibal ignored Omi, and instead pulled out yet another Wu, the Sun Chi Lantern. Both Wu had, again, been lifted by Wuya, and while he never figured he'd have any true use for either Wu again, he was now grateful for her stealing them in the first place.

The Sun Chi Lantern was directed at Omi, and once activated, cast its light upon the Dragon of Water. Within moments of being consumed by the Shen Gong Wu's radiance, Omi felt his chi being pulled from himself. Even the protective barrier of the Sphere of Yun couldn't stop it from being removed from his body.

The Sun Chi Lantern glowed on Hannibal's neck as he chuckled evilly, turning back toward his spectators to show off the energy he was now harnessing in the lantern.

Omi gasped. "You were planning on tricking me this entire time? You cross doubler!"

Hannibal simply grinned and said, "Guilty."

"How is that even possible if Chase has his Chi?" Raimundo exclaimed, more than a bit perplexed at the complexity of this situation, backing up so that he was once again near Chase and Kimiko.

"It seems Chase ain't so diligent in keeping his own warriors in check," Hannibal taunted, referring to Washa's subservience to the Zing Zom Bone. He waggled Omi's now empty Chi bottle in the air, explaining what he'd done to one of Chase's warriors. "I couldn't have used the Sun Chi Lantern for Omi's elemental Chi unless his regular Chi was there as well. Looks like I got both." As he spoke, he jettisoned himself toward Chase with his newfound powers, with all intents to destroy the Heylin Warrior.

The three Xiaolin Warriors had mere seconds to react before two Heylin forces collided against each other in what would be a battle to the death.

Chase was well matched to Hannibal, but with Omi's chi mingling with Hannibal's pure evil, his reaction time seemed infinitesimal to what it used to be. Hannibal's tentacles delivered harsh blows that his arms were failing to block, and he could feel the damage starting to be done along his waist and chest areas when stray jabs managed to slip through his defenses.

At this rate, he'd never get an attack out. The sheer force of the element of water and Heylin power managed to knock him off his feet and send him spiraling into one of his pools of water. The stone that had held the fountain together collapsed under his body, sending water leaking out onto the shiny floor, and eventually down the steps that led to the entrance.

Chase was immediately on his feet again, moving with lightning fast speed, but it wasn't fast enough. The water underneath his feet bended and caught his feet in the air, slamming him back into the ground, but continuing to pull him over the wet surface to keep him from collecting himself.

Water encased the warlord, gripping tightly, trapping him, and suffocating him of air as Chase's head was surrounded in a bubble of water formed by Hannibal.

The Xiaolin Dragons looked on in shock and disbelief. Similar to the Heylin Eclipse incident, neither force could be allowed to triumph over the other (lest Hannibal and Wuya rule the world), Raimundo was quick on his feet. He fingered his pockets for the Wu he'd brought here.

Running towards Chase and Hannibal, who'd brought himself closer to Chase in order to see the dragon's face as he struggled, he pulled out his Shen Gong Wu and jumped at them both.

"Yang Yo-Yo!"

With his close proximity in mind, all three of them were dragged into the Ying Yang World.

.o

Aside from the flooding of water on the citadel's floors, everything was still. Not even the felines who'd been watching the event occur moved a tail.

There was a thud of something hitting glass, and Kimiko turned to spot Omi, who'd fallen in the Sphere of Yun and was currently rubbing his head where he'd hit it. Kimiko quickly travelled down the steps, managing not to slip, with Clay following close behind.

Omi groaned, blinking, before looking up to his friends.

"That Hannibal Bean made the same thing happen again!" he put his hands on his head ashamedly.

"It wasn't exactly yer fault, partner. You did everything you could before Chase brok yer concentration meditation and what not," Clay responded, trying to calm the monk.

"That may be. But you'd think I'd have more self-control by now!" Omi huffed, pressing a hand against the glass solemnly, before blinking again. "Could someone please get me out of here?"

They observed him, almost curiously. He didn't seem to have the same ill intent look in his eyes the first time they saw him here. Instead, it was one they were most familiar with—the gaze of a Xiaolin monk.

Kimiko reached down and deactivated the Wu. Without Hannibal present in the same world as them, he no longer claimed ownership over the Sphere of Yun, and thus it relinquished its hold when Kimiko authorized it to.

"Thank you, Kimiko," Omi said, turning to stare back at the destruction he'd made minutes ago of Chase's wall.

"Why do you think Omi changed right after Rai and them left?" Kimiko pondered.

"I dunno, maybe it has to do with how that crazy Ying Yang World," Clay mumbled, scratching his chin.

There were a few moments of silence before Kimiko started heading off into a different direction, grimacing as she walked in soggy shoes. "We have to help Rai, since it's basically two against one. And Hannibal has the advantage because he knows a lot more about that place than any of us do!"

Omi nodded. "Agreed. We can use our Chi bottles to return to this world once we are there."

.o

The water did not follow them into the Ying Yang World. Chase immediately used the guiding force of the Ying Yang World to vanish from sight, but Hannibal was not one to be easily deceived. He knew this world like the back of his hand—or, rather, tentacle—and immediately followed suit to the path that the fog had drawn out for him.

Leaving Raimundo completely alone. Well, not entirely alone.

Dojo, who'd been wrapped around his neck, began his familiar shuddering as he immediately sensed a new Shen Gong Wu activating.

"Dojo, what gives?" Raimundo asked as he began walking in a random direction, as following the two feuding Heylin warriors was impossible with his current lack of how to bend this world to his will like them.

"I'm sensing a new Wu, if my jitters didn't clue you in. The Shiji Chi Crane just went active!"

"Really Dojo, you hid it HERE?"

"I honestly don't remember," Dojo shrugged. "But as soon as we entered, I felt it."

"I didn't know they could activate here," Raimundo said, letting Dojo point in the direction that he was sensing the Shiji Chi Crane, but with the unpredictability of the Ying Yang World, it would be quite a while before either of them would be able to find it.

.o

Kimiko led them to the Shen Gong Wu room she'd encountered before, receiving very odd and wary stares from the felines they passed along the way. A few of them recognised these new Xiaolin Dragons as ones they'd fought in the past, of which several times they'd been defeated by. Their uncharacteristic hissing was a sure sign of it.

The raven that was guarding the room screeched from its perch above after noticing that its alert to Chase was going unheeded.

"Chase is stuck in the Ying Yang World with Hannibal Bean, and you know how much he can't stand him. But Chase is weakened right now and we need the Ying Yo-Yo in order to help him," Kimiko explained to Chase's multi-formed warrior.

The beady eye of the avian stared intently at her, observing. It's seen many incidences of a liar, enough to know when one is trying to pull the wool over its eyes. But then it reclined, making no move to stop her when she reached for the Ying Yo-Yo.

Both Xiaolin Dragons were staring oddly at her.

"What? It's not like Hannibal is much better. At least Chase honours his word."

.o

It did not take long for the three Xiaolin monks to find Raimundo in the Ying Yang World. The Ying Yo Yo seemed to have a mind of its own, guiding the users near the location of the Yang Yo-Yo when teleporting them into the Ying Yang World. They were dropped a few meters behind Raimundo, who was in front of Hannibal Bean, and touching something that was glowing an unsightly shade of aqua. Chase Young himself was away from the action, clutching his left side but otherwise showing no signs of pain.

"Hannibal, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown!"

Kimiko called out Raimundo's name, as though he was out of his mind. Clay was the one to ask what was on everyone's mind. "Can that even be done here?"

Dojo, always prepared for a situation like this, brought up the Showdown Rulebook, scanning its pages meticulously, but shut it with an odd expression on his face. "I can't find anything on it! But it doesn't say it can't be done."

"Oh yes, it can be done. It's just no one ever returned alive to tell the tale." Hannibal addressed, his words an ominous hint towards the past of the Ying Yang World.

"I wager the Yang Yo-Yo and Serpent's tail against your Tenchi Render and Moby Morpher," Raimundo said, bringing out the aforementioned Wu. They'd brought the Serpent's Tail in case Chase wouldn't cooperate, and they'd have to find Omi's Chi for themselves. Thankfully that wasn't the case.

"Hold up, Rai," Kimiko called out, coming from around Hannibal's side and over to Raimundo. "Wager the _Ying_ Yang Yo-Yo against his Sun Chi Lantern." She flashed a look back to Chase to see his face rather blank, as usual. She thought he would have been more peeved to see her just _giving_ his Shen Gong Wu away. "We can't risk letting him steal our Chi like he did with Omi."

"You really have no faith in me? I can win this," Raimundo boasted, but still grabbed the Ying Yo-Yo regardless and combined it with his Yang Yo-Yo. He nodded and turned to Hannibal. "So bean dude, you accept that additional wager?"

"Fine by me. The game is Chi Hunt," responded Hannibal. "First to get their Chi sucked out by the Chi Guardian loses."

This definitely was _not_ part of the plan Raimundo had. "Woah, woah, woah, hold up. That's not the kind of game I was expecting here!" he burst out. Hannibal's dark laugh was not reassuring.

"The stakes are always high in the Ying Yang World. You're playing in _my_ domain. If I win this Shiji Chi Crane, you can bet it's over for you high n' mighty Xiaolin Warriors if you ain't got no way out of this place."

If Hannibal won both the Ying Yang Yo-Yo AND the Shiji Chi Crane, there'd literally be no way for them to get out ever again, not to mention no chance of saving any of their Chi if they did leave the Ying Yang World.

Raimundo gritted his teeth in one of his most stressful decisions yet. But he knew what he had to do.

"Let's go."

The unceremonious string of words '_Xiaolin Showdown!'_ activated the mystical shifting of the Ying Yang planes. However, not much changed, aside from the world dropping around a large rectangle of land beneath their feet. The area surrounding them was barren, only holding a single platform detached from the main ground for the spectators to sit on.

Hannibal and Raimundo were shadowed by a large figure that dropped from the darkness above, and Raimundo instantly recognised it as the Chi Guardian. Sure, he knew how to beat it now, but that was in the real world. In its own territory? He had a serious disadvantage here.

"_Gong Yi Tampai!"_

Hannibal used the Moby Morpher as soon as the match started, shrinking himself even smaller than his original finger-sized bean state, into a fly. The Chi Guardian had excellent vision, but he kept in mind that larger objects would catch its attention much quicker than something as small as a fly. And that larger object included Raimundo.

The Chi Guardian's speed was unmatched in the Ying Yang World. Less than five seconds into the showdown and already the Chi Guardian had thick black fingers trapping Raimundo in its grip, knocking his breath out from the sheer speed at which he was grabbed. It didn't keep him from punching at the Chi Guardian's torso as its tentacle-esque tongue brushed against his ear, whispering for his Chi.

Raimundo had only a few seconds to prepare the plan in his head once Hannibal had announced the game. There was no way of knowing if it would work.

"Ying Yang Yo-Yo!"

The space around them warped itself as he and the Chi Guardian were pulled into reality. The real world was not a pretty sight.

It was much more deformed than normal to match the Ying Yang World. But the Ying Yang World's attributes were based on its own laws of magic that allowed it to take on its own characteristics, including the black and white palette. The real world trying to replicate that was, for lack of better terms, disturbing. No Xiaolin Showdown had ever shown so much chaos of the landscape, destruction of the elements, havoc of living creatures. Animals were stuck haphazardly in between rock masses, fish were floating in the air, flopping about as they were deprived of oxygen. A few animals themselves had been ripped in half in the real world's attempt to accommodate the Ying Yang World's taxing demands for a Xiaolin Showdown.

The Chi Guardian, startled, had dropped Raimundo, who had quickly maneuvered to straddle the Chi Guardian's back, not bothering to wonder why the environment was the way it was. He only had a few seconds to do this; he needed to make them count.

He activated the Serpent's tail on himself while the Chi Guardian was disoriented from switching worlds, and immediately used the Ying Yang Yo-Yo to transport them back into the Ying Yang World before the effects of the Serpent's Tail took over.

Raimundo's predictions were correct. In the Ying Yang World, sometimes Shen Gong Wu don't act the way they were originally intended to. He found himself clinging to the Chi Guardian's neck, but his body itself was transparent, as though he could actually pass through objects. The Serpent's Tail's abilities in the Ying Yang World didn't stop there. Apparently, he was still weightless, as the Chi Guardian did not give any sign that it even knew Raimundo was still on its back.

Hannibal caught sight of them, but at the same time, the Chi Guardian caught sight of _him_. The Chi Guardian, blissfully unaware of Raimundo still tagging along on it, now only has its sights set on Hannibal Roy Bean.

It charged. Raimundo struggled to hang onto it with the sheer force of the creature's speed in its domain.

Hannibal was quick on his feet (or lack thereof), though. He wouldn't be able to match the speed of the Chi Guardian as a fly, but he could certainly crush it before it could do anything to him. He used the Moby Morpher to switch into his larger bean form, his weight bringing him down upon the Chi Guardian's body as it launched itself upward toward him.

Raimundo let go of the Chi Guardian, smirking as he floated away from the two. Hannibal smashed the creature into the ground, forcing its body to stretch over the flat white surface that the Ying Yang World provided.

Hannibal boasted a lot about knowing all there was to the Ying Yang World, but it seemed he hadn't done his research on the Chi Guardian.

Seconds later, black figures began working their way out from under Hannibal, who shifted in for a closer look to see what these things were.

"What the…" would be his last sane-minded words. The Chi Guardian snapped itself together in a form larger than Hannibal himself, picking him up with its pitch black hands and Chi sucker immediately being put to work.

Hannibal Bean was pure evil—that was evident in how he could travel between the Ying Yang World and reality on Ying Ying and not be affected by his inter-dimension travels. The pure evil Chi that was sucked out of him was the only Chi he contained. Without it, he was no better than a de-Chied sprout.

The Ying Yang World flashed back to normal—or, whatever could be considered 'normal' in this world—as it saw the Showdown had reached an end. It drew away the Chi Guardian as soon as the last bits of Hannibal's Chi were in its possession, bringing the Guardian back to wherever it was lingering in the first place.

Raimundo now held in possession the last Shen Gong Wu Hannibal would likely ever use again.

"That was amazing!" The cheers of adulation and praise rose as the three Xiaolin Dragons crowded around Raimundo, pats on the back and hugs distributed by all.

Kimiko was the first to let the afterglow of a victory pass, as she brought up the question that was bothering her. "What happened to Omi's Chi? Is it back inside of him now?" The short monk seemed to have lost the Heylin intent, but she couldn't understand how Raimundo could've planned all this and been so sure of himself. He wouldn't have gone into the Ying Yang World without a plan. Master Fung had advised against it.

"Okay, check this. When Hannibal entered the Ying Yang World, he was carrying Omi's Chi from the Sun Chi Lantern, as well as Omi's elemental Chi. That elemental Chi would be returned to Omi as soon as Hannibal switched worlds, because non-physical possessions like that can't really be transferred through to the Ying Yang World like that. And because Omi's regular Chi had been combined in the Sun Chi Lantern as well, it too was returned to the Ying Yang World upon Hannibal's forced entrance. That's why I used the Yang Yo-Yo."

"How'd you know all this? You can't've just guessed it." Clay inquired.

"It was something I looked at when we were searching for the scrolls on the whole Yo-Yo thing back when Omi was evil. You can still read half of the pages that got ripped out," he shrugged.

The now de-chied Hannibal was wandering around, spouting random words relating to evil. "What do we do with him?" Omi asked.

"We could always keep him locked up in a box like that Heylin Seed thing?" Raimundo suggested.

"Not likely. You know how Master Fung is. Taking prisoners isn't exactly his MO." Kimiko said, rolling her eyes and peered at Chase, who'd watched the entire event unfold and was now staring at what he once considered one of his greatest enemies.

"Maybe we could just leave him here? It's not like he can get out now," Omi shrugged.

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Raimundo said, holding out the Ying Yang Yo-Yo as though to use it, but then paused as he remembered who was still stuck here.

"Hold up for a second." He turned to face Chase, who regarded him with a frown. "If you want to escape this place with us, you're going to have to give us something too."

Chase lifted a brow.

"A life for a life, I'm thinking." He stood up straighter. "You know, your life is basically over if we leave you here, just like that gross fruit over there. So, if you want to get out of here, you gotta give up Kimiko."

"And if I don't Kimiko will be stuck with me in here," Chase pointed out.

"We just wiped the floor of basically your greatest threat and you're still going to throw that in our faces? Harsh man," Raimundo huffed.

The awkward moment of silence gave Chase time to contemplate the situation. He'd be stuck here forever if he did not let things go for once.

"I do owe you for that favour," Chase grit his teeth. "Very well, I accept your proposition."

.o

**Author's Note:** I must admit I love me the Ying Yang World. It is a shame that the show did not go more in depth with it, though I assume it is what Christy Hui would have done if she'd be allowed to give Hannibal more face time for his giant scheme if the network hadn't told her 'no' in the first place, hah. Oh well. Maybe they'll bring the Ying Yang World into Xiaolin Chronicles. That'd actually give me a reason to watch it, but knowing the writers for the show, they'd probably screw it up.

The Shiji Chi Crane would have been a great Shen Gong Wu too. oTL Cranes are known to be great Chi suckers in Chinese lore, and shiji is earth/world in Chinese. Since it can suck Chi anywhere in the world. It would have done wonders. It's too bad I missed out on the 'Show us your Shen Gong Wu' thing they had when I first watched this show. Ooooh well. At least I had fun writing this. Now I can retire from _Xiaolin Showdown_.


End file.
